Carolina Ascent on a mission heading into GSL playoffs

STEVE GOLDBERG | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Lily Nabet and her Carolina Ascent mates are on an 11-game unbeaten streak going into the Gainbridge Super League semifinals against Sporting Jacksonville Sunday in Florida.

Carolina Ascent’s win over Sporting Jacksonville in the regular season finale of the Gainbridge Super League leads to a more difficult challenge.

The two teams meet again in the postseason tournament semifinal on Sunday. (5 p.m., streaming on Peacock). The Ascent denied the then top-of-the-table Sporting, who needed a draw to win the Player’s Shield in their first season, with a 3-1 win at American Legion Memorial Stadium. It stretched Carolina’s undefeated streak to 11 matches, and the sixth straight win.

“Another good result, another three points, another great crowd at American Legion Memorial Stadium,” coach Philip Poole said. “I'm really proud of the organization tonight, because although I don't really get involved in anything before the game or at halftime, I actually felt a good vibe in the stadium. I felt a lot of fun, I felt a lot of excitement, and a lot of noise.”

“I'm proud of the people behind the scenes that never get any credit, because it's a lot easier to play in a stadium like that. It’s a lot easier to play with six or seven thousand in there, which is great.”

After falling behind in the seventh minute, Carolina drew even on midfielder Shea Groom’s first GSL goal in the 16th minute and took the lead when Tyler Lussi scored after Mackenzie George’s shot was blocked in the 36th. Jill Aguilera scored directly on her corner kick in the 74th minute to close the game.

“We’ve just kind of been building on the momentum that we've already had,” said Groom after the match. “Eleven games unbeaten now, right? It’s just been the evolution of the spring for us, and honestly, it doesn’t matter who we play; we’re coming out on the field and just trying to put a better version of ourselves than the last game, and I think we’ve just continued to build.

“Especially in these last few games, it’s been a lot more about offense: can we put the ball in the back of the net? So, having six goals in the last two games is massive going into this postseason.” 

Lexington takes first

Lexington SC, the early pacesetters before Jacksonville passed them, earned the shield with their 1-0 win over eighth-place Tampa Bay. That leveled them on points (53) with Sporting and gave them the trophy on a superior goal differential (plus-26 to plus-22). They will play fourth-seeded Dallas Trinity FC at 5 p.m. on Saturday in Lexington, Kentucky. Dallas edged Spokane Zephyr for the final playoff spot with a 4-0 win over Fort Lauderdale.

The Ascent finished two points behind Lexington and Jacksonville and Poole admitted he has thought back to games where a point or two were lost during the season. 

“The competitor in me is a little disappointed,” he said, “but you can’t live your life that way, right?”

Groom found motivation in it. 

“I think we also felt a little bit of a chip on our shoulders, felt like we should have been playing in contention for the shield, and it just didn't shake out that way,” she said. 

That leaves just the tournament trophy to claim, and they will have to be equal to the task.

Let’s play two

Poole acknowledges that playing Jacksonville again, especially with the sting of knocking them out of first place, will be a challenge.

“I think it's just that weird. It’s no different in any league, any competition in the world,” he said. “You play a team back-to-back; someone improves, someone has to figure something out. They’ll go back and look at some of the things that we did to them, and we’ll go back and look at some of the things that we did. You wish you had another opponent in between. It’ll pose its challenges to both teams, but it’s playoff time.”

The Ascent were especially good at limiting chances from a Sporting side that features three of the league's top scorers. Lexington’s Catherine Barry is on top with 16 goals, followed by Jacksonville’s Baylee DeSmit and Ashlyn Puerta with 12 apiece. Paige Kenton has 10. 

Asked in an interview on Sirius XM FC’s show The Coaching Academy earlier this week if playing the same team again will change how they trained this week, Poole said it wouldn’t.

“Not really. We’re fairly process-driven here, so we just kind of stayed on our schedule and stayed with our process,” he said. “That's a nice thing to say when things are good and you’re winning, but we’ve had to stay in that process even when we haven’t been good this season, so I think we’ve done it on both ends. We generally always stay within our process.”

Poole said that while there were some areas where the Ascent had to be cleaner or more in the moment, such as quick set pieces by Jacksonville, they did their jobs. They will have to be even better at them on Sunday.

Evolution of the GSL

From eight teams in last year’s inaugural season, Jacksonville (16-7-5) joined this year and led the league with 16 wins, one more than Carolina (15-7-6). Lexington (14-3-11) had 14 victories but took the season by suffering defeat three times.

“Carolina’s had an amazing season,” said GSL president Amanda Vandervort, who was in Charlotte to potentially present the Players’ Shield to Jacksonville. Carolina’s win, along with Lexington’s, changed that plan.

“Congratulations to the Ascent. What an incredible night. The fan base was out. All credit to the team. Carolina really came out and showed their quality.” 

“It has been a good season,” Poole said on The Coaching Academy. “It's funny. We won the league last year, yet we scored more points this year and don't win the league. So, I think that’s a sign of where we’re at and how the league's progressing.”

The GSL Final is May 30 at the home venue of the highest remaining seed. That means there’s a chance of another game at Memorial Stadium, which would take an Ascent win and a Lexington loss. 

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