Chattanooga FC Women defeated long-time rivals Nashville Rhythm 1-0 at Finley Stadium on Thursday evening to be crowned 2025 WPSL Southeast Conference champions.
A 79th-minute header from UTC winger EG Dillard proved to be the winner and booked Chattanooga a spot in next weekend's WPSL South Region Playoffs.
Chattanooga dominated play and produced more chances than its opponent throughout the evening. Centre-back Kei Yoneda hit the crossbar with a long-range strike in the first half. Annick Lolita Manga Zouma and Amy Smith both had big chances to give CFC a lead early in the second half but both sent their shots over the crossbar.
The crucial moment came 11 minutes from regulation time when newly-acquired winger Amy Neal burst down the wing and found Dillard with a pin-point accurate cross, and the UTC athlete made no mistake with her header from close range, and it ultimately proved to be the winning moment for Chattanooga.
"It's extremely special," said Chattanooga FC Women Head Coach Juan Hernandez in his post-match press conference. "The most important part is that we did it in front of our fans and our city. We had a great crowd out tonight. So many good things happened tonight and the girls deserve all the credit for that.
"Every game for us this season was a final. We have approached it that way since the first meeting we had. We told our players that every game is a final. We knew we couldn't start slowly in any other games, because we knew that any game we didn't win or perform, we could be out of reach of the playoffs. Thankfully we made the playoffs, and partially we deserved it as we have done really good things throughout the season to get to this point and we saw that today. We proved that we are a championship team."
CFC now advances to the WPSL South Region Playoffs, which consists of two rounds of single-elimination bracket play and will be hosted by McLean Soccer in Leesburg, Virginia. The other clubs taking part will be Louisiana Krewe Rush and West Florida Flames.
The semi-finals will take place on Saturday, July 12th and finals on Sunday, July 13th. The South Region Champion, along with the other three region champions, will move on to the WPSL Championship, which will take place from July 18-20 in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
The full playoff bracket for the WPSL South Region Playoffs will be announced on Monday, July 7.