2015 OVC Tournament Bracket

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Senior Kelsey Bright's goal in the first half propelled the Jacksonville State soccer team in to the 2015 Ohio Valley Conference Soccer Tournament for the second consecutive year as JSU held off Belmont, 1-0, on Thursday night in the regular season finale at E.S. Rose Park.

The Gamecocks, who finished the regular season at 8-9-1 overall and 5-4-1 in the OVC, also earned the No. 3 seed in the six-team field and will host the No. 6 seed Southeast Missouri in the opening round of the tournament on Sunday at the JSU Soccer Field.  The OVC will announce the start time for Sunday's contest on Friday.  For the first time this season, the opening round matches will be held on campus sites and the two surviving teams will advance to the semifinal round on Friday, November 6.  Murray State won the regular season crown with a clean 10-0 worksheet and earned the right to host the semifinals and championship match.  The championship match will be held on Sunday, Nov. 8.

MSU and Tennessee Tech earned opening round byes and will await the winners of Sunday's two matches.  UT Martin claimed the No. 4 seed and will host No. 5 seed Morehead State on Sunday.  UTM MSU and Jax State all finished with identical 5-4-1 records in conference play, but the Gamecocks won the three-way tiebreaker with the other two clubs to receive the No. 3 seed.

Bright put the Gamecocks on the scoreboard early with the goal coming in the 14^th minute of the contest.  The Kingwood, Texas forward dribbled past the Bruin defense and her shot deflected off the goalkeepers' hands in in the back left side of the net.  JSU was limited to just five shots but Bright made one of those count with a netted ball.  JSU was able to keep that advantage the rest of the half as Belmont produced nine shots in the first 45 minutes.  The Gamecocks were held to one shot in the second half.  Bright moved closer to the program's all-time career shots lead with two more of Friday.  She needs three more shot attempts to match former Gamecock Jackie Rush's all-time mark of 210 career shots.

Jax State thwarted many Bruin runs in the final 45 minutes as BU was credited with 12 shots in the second half and finished with 16 more shots than JSU.  Sophomore goalkeeper Caroline Robinson, playing near her hometown of Hendersonville, Tennessee, put on a solid performance in goal to preserve the win and extend JSU's season.  Robinson posted her fifth shutout of the season and fourth against a conference opponent.  She collected a season-high 11 saves in the contest.

Belmont's Meg Howard tallied a match-best six shots in the setback.  The Bruins ended the 2015 season at 4-12-2 overall and 3-6-1 in league play.
Sunday's quarterfinal match up with the Redhawks of SEMO (8-5-6, 3-2-5 OVC) will be a rematch of last season's semifinal contest of the OVC Soccer Tournament.  JSU knocked off the host and to-seeded Redhawks 1-0 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.  SEMO claimed the regular season contest between the two clubs back on October 18, 1-0, on SEMO's home pitch.

The JSU-SEMO contest will be available on the OVC Digital Network.