CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. --- University of Tennessee at Chattanooga freshman Hannah Torbett (Johnson City, Tenn.) scored her second straight game winning goal to lift the Mocs to a 2-1 overtime victory against Mercer in Southern Conference action at Finley Stadium Sunday afternoon. The win is the third straight for the Mocs and gets UTC off to its best start against the league since 2004.
 
Chattanooga improves to 5-7-1 overall and 3-1 in conference play while the Bears drop to 3-8 on the year and 1-3 against the SoCon.
 
"I'm delighted for the girls," Chattanooga head coach Gavin McKinney said. "We had a rough start with out of conference play. We dropped a lot of games by a goal, but we kept preaching to them that it's got to be about the SoCon play for us."
 
With just more than a minute gone in overtime, the Mocs drew a foul. Junior McKenzie Gregg (Newport, Tenn.) lined up to take the shot from the left side. She lofted a pass toward the throng of players inside the box and Torbett picked up the shot and headed it into the goal past the Mercer keeper for the sudden victory.
 
"It was kind of one of those funny distances where McKenzie could have taken it or delivered it into the back post," McKinney said. "We have a few players who are good in the air and I fancied her to deliver it and hoping somebody got on the end of it which they did. It was Hannah with the header. She's scored a couple of big goals for us. Hopefully she'll keep pushing on."
 
Chattanooga scored early on before the defenses took over. Junior Peyton McCollum (Oak Ridge, Tenn.) pushed the ball down the right side and sent a cross into the box for classmate Ellie Myrick (Knoxville, Tenn.) at the goal to put the Mocs up 1-0 with just 2:11 gone in the match.
 
Mercer evened the score just before halftime with a score from Logan Culver in the 40^th minute. The Mocs were trying to clear the ball out of the box and Culver picked it up just inside the 18 yard line and sent it into the back of the net to make it 1-1.
 
Neither team was able to find the net in the second half, sending the match into overtime. Mercer outshot Chattanooga 13-8 but never had a chance to get a shot off in the final frame. Myrick had a game-high three shots with two on goal. McCollum and Torbett each had two shots and freshman Jordan Mueller (Hendersonville, Tenn.) had the Mocs' eighth of the day.
 
Freshman keeper Melia Correa (Clarksville, Tenn.) had eight saves, playing 91:17 minutes in goal and facing shots from 10 different Mercer players. Haleigh Svede, Emma Musson and Culver each had two shots for the Bears.
 
"We've got a lot of young kids that play for us regularly," McKinney said. "It takes time to learn and to get used to each other and find a flow and what works best. As coaches we have to find that mix. It took a little time but we definitely feel we're hitting our stride now and we need to build off it."
 
The Mocs will host preseason favorite Samford Friday night at Finley Stadium. The match is set to kick off at 7 p.m. with the South Gate opening one hour prior. Admission is free and concessions will be available. To follow the match online, go to the women's soccer schedule page at GoMocs.com for links to the live scoring and streaming video on the SoCon Digital Network.