LAKELAND, Fla. – No. 2 seed Southeastern (16-1) defeated no. 3 seed St. Thomas (12-3) 2-1 in The Sun Conference Semifinals on Tuesday night. 

The two teams remained scoreless for the first 70 minutes until a Southeastern goal in the 71st minute broke the scoreless deadlock.  The Fire scored a second goal less than two minutes later to extend the lead to two goals.

Down 2-0, Eva Castano Candela put the Bobcats on the scoreboard with a goal in the 82nd minute that cut the Fire's lead in half.  Candela was awarded a penalty kick. The PK was saved by SEU's Kaitlyn Romero, but the rebound off the save fell to Candela's foot which she drove to the back of the net.

Just minutes following the Candela goal, a red card was assessed to the Fire, giving the Bobcats an 11-10 player advantage for the final minutes of the contest.  Southeastern held off STU for the final five minutes to hold on and win.

The Bobcats played heroically on defense throughout the contest with senior goalkeeper Cristina Garwacki making a game-high six saves.

The season-long resume for the Bobcats is an impressive one with STU outscoring its opponents 49-10 on the season.  The STU defense and Garwacki recorded nine shutouts and only allowed more than one goal in only three matches.

STU's three losses came to highly ranked teams in the national polls with one loss coming to no. 6 ranked Keiser and two losses to no. 10 Southeastern.  The Bobcats are amongst teams receiving votes in the NAIA National Coaches Poll, four spots out of the Top-25.

St. Thomas will now await the announcement of the NAIA National Championships Opening Round pairings.