Women's soccer team opens national tourney with win

The Eastern Florida State College women's soccer team opened the NJCAA Division I National Tournament with a win on Sunday evening in Wichita, Kansas.

The No. 4 seeded Titans defeated No. 9 seed Barton Community College 1-0 in the first of two games in Pool D play. The Titans will play Tyler Junior College on Tuesday evening at Stryker Sports Complex.

"You want to get the first win under your belt in the tournament and Barton was a great team and fought hard all the way. We had to fight until the end, game came right down to the final 14 seconds. Proud of the effort the girls put in tonight," Eastern Florida State College women's soccer coach Scott Carswell said.

The first half saw the Titans dominate possession but both defenses stood tall, sending the game to halftime scoreless.

The team's picked up the intensity in the second half and Lauren Pastor made a couple of big saves to keep things tied and then 21 minutes into the second half, the Titans got on the board.

Ana Alvarez Garcia took the free kick and hit a high ball into the box where Nancy Almanza leaped up and got her head on the ball, sending it into the back of the net.

It gave the Titans a 1-0 lead as Almanza has now scored in each of the past four games for the Titans and has 11 goals on the season.

From there Pastor made another big save late to secure the shutout.

She has been fantastic for us all year and came up big tonight when we needed her," Carswell said.

Eastern Florida State College will be off on Monday before playing Tyler Junior College Tuesday evening.