CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Cincinnati (15-3-3) defeated East Carolina (11-6-4), 2-1, at Charlotte's Transamerica Field on Thursday. The Bearcats advance to Saturday's Conference USA Women's Soccer Championship match at 2 p.m., on Saturday.

"We knew that ECU was a well-coached team," Cincinnati head coach Meridy Glenn said. "They play as a team and we had to do something to break that discipline. They made us play."

The Bearcats struck first when Rachel Lieberman placed a corner kick to Tasha Wagner, who fired a shot past the keeper into the left side of the goal in the 68th minute.

The Pirates scored the equalizer in the 79th minute, when Krystel Pabey found the back of the net after collecting a pass from Amanda Duffy during a scramble in front of Cincinnati's goal.

Cincinnati then scored the game-winning goal in the 88th minute, when Wagner's corner kick bounced into the box to Amy Mink, who rifled the ball into the net.

"We wanted to finish the game playing to win," East Carolina head coach Rob Donnnenwirth said. "We changed our formation to try to get something going in the second half. They're a good team and we tried a lot of things to get something going."

Cincinnati advances to meet the winner of the Charlotte-Marquette semifinal match. This is Cincinnati's third straight and fifth appearance overall in the C-USA Championship match.