Carolina Ascent goes for sixth straight win in GSL finale

CAROLINA ASCENT

Mia Corbin tallied a goal and assist in Carolina Ascent's 3-0 win against Gainbridge Super League opponent Fort Lauderdale United on May 9 for their fifth straight victory and 10th straight match without a loss. The Ascent close the regular season May 16 against Sporting JAX at Memorial Stadium in the regular season finale.

Carolina Ascent’s on a roll heading into the Gainbridge Super League regular season finale.

The Climbers pushed their unbeaten streak to 10 matches with five straight wins last week after a 3-0 win at Fort Lauderdale United in the road finale. The Ascent, who are third in the standings at 48 points (14-7-6), need a win Saturday against top seeded Sporting JAX (16-6-5, 53 points) at Memorial Stadium and Lexington SC (13-3-11, 50 points) loss to Tampa Bay Sun (5-13-9, 24 points) to snatch second and host a semifinal match. Saturday’s game kicks off at 7 p.m. and will be streamed on Peacock and broadcast on WAXN (channel 64).

Carolina did its damage after intermission against Fort Lauderdale with Mackenzie George, Mia Corbin, and Tyler Lussi scoring in the second half while Sydney Martinez claimed her seventh clean sheet. The Climbers, who outshot Fort Lauderdale 6-1 in the first half, owned the early momentum but couldn’t turn opportunity into goals.

“I actually thought we started a little slow and grew into the first half,” Ascent coach Philip Poole said. “We had some great opportunities to take the lead and didn’t take them. The message at halftime was to continue doing what we were doing and clean things up a little bit. In the second half, I thought we were very dominant.”

Carolina broke the deadlock in the 63rd minute when Corbin’s corner kick got to George’s head for the goal – George’s first tally since Oct. 4 against DC Power. 

“She deserves It,” Poole said. “There’s no easy way to say it. She’s a tireless worker and a great teammate. If you step back and look at her body of work over the course of the season, I can’t believe she hasn’t gotten more. She deserves that goal.”

Corbin had a hand in the Ascent’s second goal when a corner in the 77th minute made its way to the box for Corbin to strike with her left foot.

Lussi closed the onslaught in the 82nd minute when she capped an Ascent counter by burying a blocked shot into the empty net for her third goal of the season.

“Staying consistent with our press and our principles as a team allowed us to have the freedom to exploit them and just have some fun tonight,” Corbin said.

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