Leilanni Nesbeth and her No. 1 Florida State Women's Soccer teammates, turned in another terrific second-half performance as they scored two goals in the final 20 minutes to defeat No. 11 Pitt 2 - 0 to advance to the ACC Championship. FSU will look for their fourth consecutive title on Sunday at noon when they take on Clemson. Florida State has now outscored their opponents 39-4 in the second half and 22-4 in the final 25 minutes of the match.
It was a dominant first half for Florida State as they outshot Pitt 10-2 and held possession for 58% of the time but were unable to find the back of the net. Florida State got a couple of good looks though as Onyi Echegini hit one off of the top crossbar in the 19th minute. Jordynn Dudley also had a great look that went just wide in the 32nd minute.
The two teams were very even to begin the second half, and Pitt threatened twice in the 52nd minute and again in the 59th minute, but Cristina Roque and the Florida State defense prevailed to keep the Panthers off the board. Florida State ended Pitt's momentum as Nesbeth sent a great ball from just beyond the midfield to Jody Brown. Brown took a couple of dribbles and sent it into the box to Dudley who easily converted on the header to give Florida State a 1-0 lead in the 70th minute. Dudley scored her 10th goal of the season to join Echegini as a double-digit scorer for Florida State. This is the first time since 2014 that Florida State has had two double-digit scorers.
Just five minutes later, Florida State created a corner kick opportunity for Taylor Huff who sent a perfect ball to the front post where Beata Olsson just got a piece of it to send it to the back of the net to give Florida State a 2-0 lead. This was Olsson's fourth goal of the season and her first goal since Sept. 21 against Syracuse. Huff recorded her ACC-leading 12th assist of the season.
Florida State was able to shut down Pitt for the final 20 minutes to record their ninth shutout of the season. This was just the second time all season that Pitt had been shutout.
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