EVANS, Ga. – Alexis Pittman floated a ball over North Georgia goalkeeper Hannah Goudy in the second minute and Gina Ryan recorded six shutouts on the way to her league-leading 10^th shutout of the season as fourth-seeded UNC Pembroke upended the top-seeded Nighthawks, 1-0, on Friday afternoon in the semifinal round of the Peach Belt Conference Tournament.
 
The victory sends the Braves to their second appearance in the PBC Championship game, and their first appearance in the title bout since 2008. The Black & Gold will face the winner of Friday's second semifinal match between second-seeded Columbus State and third-seeded Flagler in that contest. Kickoff for Sunday's championship game is set for 1 p.m. at Blanchard Woods Park in Evans.

"I am incredibly proud of the girls," said head coach Lars Andersson. "We had a gameplan and we stayed with it. That takes tremendous discipline, especially when you're exhausted and being battered late in the game. The difference between this game and the regular season game was that we didn't get frustrated late in the game. We continued to play in the second half. It's amazing when you have a group of young kids that can take in and apply the information that we give them and then just go out there and do it. They did everything that we asked them to do today."
 
MATCH INFORMATION
Score: UNC Pembroke 1, North Georgia 0
Records: UNC Pembroke 14-4-1; North Georgia 12-4-2
Location: Blanchard Woods Park – Evans, Ga.
Series: UNC Pembroke leads, 7-5-3
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Box Score / Play-by-Play
 
FIRST HALF
- Pittman scored on the first shot of the contest for either team when she collection a deflection off of a failed clearance by UNG netminder and Georgia transfer Hannah Goudy and chipped a shot over the head of Goudy who was quickly retreating back to her line.
- Ryan made two saves in the opening stanza, including a stop in the 21^st minute after Jessi Vaverka found the ball in traffic and fired a shot off from close range.
- Pittman registered her second shot of the half at the 12:39 mark, but the Braves would go shot-less for the next 29:56 until Stacey Scott finally broke the drought with a quality header.
 
SECOND HALF
- The Braves tallied three of their four corner kicks of the contest in the first 16 minutes of the second half, but Goudy fought off each opportunity, including a save on a header by Scott in the 63^rd minute.
- The Nighthawks out-shot the Braves, 8-5, in the second half but just half of their shots were on target. Ryan was equal to the task on a pair of quality scoring opportunities over the game's final 13 minutes to register the clean sheet.
 
NOTABLES
- The victory for the Black & Gold snapped a six-game series winless streak against North Georgia. UNCP's last win in the series prior to Saturday came on Oct. 13, 2012, in Pembroke. The Nighthawks posted a 4-0 win in the only other PBC Tournament matchup in the series last season.
- Twelve of the 15 games in the series between the two squads have now been decided by one goal or less.
- Pittman's score in the 2^nd minute marked her sixth game-winning goal of the season and her third game-winning goal in the last four outings for the Braves.
- Ryan picked up her 10^th shutout of the season on Saturday – the most for a UNCP goalkeeper since former all-PBC standout Britney Bennett registered 10 clean sheets amid a 16-4-2 season in 2010. Ryan, Bennett and all-American Whitney Beverly are the only three netminders in program history to record 10 or more shutouts in a single season.
 
UP NEXT
The Braves will make the program's second appearance in the PBC Tournament Championship on Sunday at 1 p.m. against the winner of Friday's second semifinal game between second-seeded and PBC regular season co-champion Columbus State and third-seeded Flagler. The Braves dropped a tough 2-1 contest at then-No. 2 Columbus State on September 23, and used an 89^th minute goal to forge a 2-2 draw with then-No. 5 Flagler in Pembroke on October 11.