No. 1 Seed FSU Beats Southeastern Louisiana, 4-1
Florida State moves to 16-0-0 in postseason home games in program history.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The fifth-ranked Florida State soccer team opened the 2009 NCAA Tournament with a 4-1 win over Southeastern Louisiana Friday night at home.

Boasting the first No. 1 seed in program history, the Seminoles (17-4-1) moved to an impressive 16-0-0 all-time at home in postseason play. FSU has also now won its last 16 home games dating back to last season as the team advanced out of the first round for the ninth time in 10 postseason tries as a program.

Jessica Price’s fourth multi-goal game of the season helped propel an FSU team that was unlike anything the Lions (13-5-2) had seen all season.

Southeastern Louisiana entered the game on the heels of a regular season that saw it allow just nine goals all year and no more than two scores in any match. But Price, who now has a team-best six game-winning goals to her credit this season, scored twice in the first 15 minutes of the match and the Seminoles didn’t even need to score in the second half to keep their season alive.

In addition to Price, Ella Stephan and Breezy Hupp both registered scores in the FSU victory.

Lauren Switzer contributed two assists while Alex Crown and Becky Edwards both had one apiece.

Defensively, the ’Noles limited a Lions attack that entered the evening ranked fourth in the entire nation with an impressive per-game goals average of 2.89. FSU ranked sixth in the country at 2.76 goals per game.

Maiya Cooper scored the lone Lions goal.

At the goalkeeper positions, FSU’s Erin McNulty had one save and Southeastern Louisiana’s Lacey Bockhaus had two.

The Seminoles certainly didn’t wait long to get on the board for the first time in the postseason.

Following a team-saved ball of a shot by Switzer, Price collected it and scored from eight yards out to give FSU an early 1-0 advantage 57 seconds into the contest.

Interestingly enough, as fast as the speedy Seminole score was Friday night, it wasn’t the program’s quickest in postseason history. The 2007 squad actually scored just 15 seconds into its match against Notre Dame in the College Cup that season.

A little less than 13 minutes later, Price scored her second goal of the night and 14th of the season on another assist from Switzer.

The ’Noles 2-0 lead wouldn’t last, though, as a miscue in the backfield led to a Lions score in the 20th minute. FSU’s Ines Jaurena tried to clear the ball to McNulty but the pass brought her out of the net and Southeastern Louisiana’s Cooper knocked in her 14th goal of the season to trim her team’s deficit to 2-1.

But the slip-up by the Seminoles didn’t slow them down.

In the game’s 28th minute, Florida State regained its two-point lead as Stephan’s header off Edwards’ corner kick found the inside of the south goal.

After what was Stephan’s third score of the year, Hupp scored on a pass from Crown in the 44th minute to give the ’Noles a 4-1 lead just before halftime. The scoring play marked the second goal of the year for Hupp and the second assist of the year for Crown.

For the game, the Seminoles outshot the Lions 22-5. FSU had 14 corner kicks compared to just one by Southeastern Louisiana.

Florida State will now play the winner of tonight’s Auburn-California match on Sunday at 1 p.m.