Furman 2, Mercer 0
Macon, Ga. ? The Furman Lady Paladin soccer team used goals from Rachel Fry and freshman Chelsea McKie to top Mercer 2-0 and claim their first win of the 2006 campaign Friday evening at the LQ Cup in Macon, Ga.
After an 0-2 start to the season that saw Furman outscored 6-1, the Lady Paladins recorded a shutout of the tournament hosts.
Fry opened the scoring in the 40th minute getting behind the Bears’
defense on a Katie Tucker pass and beating the keeper for her first tally of 2006.
Less than 15 minutes after the restart, McKie connected with a bouncing ball in the box and netted her first collegiate goal to provide the final 2-0 margin.
The Lady Paladins controlled play posting a 14-5 margin in shot attempts and 7-0 edge in corner kicks. Freshman Briana da Mota and senior Jennifer Dobbs combined on the shutout in net. Da Mota saved three shots while Dobbs notched one stop in 15 minutes of action.
Furman looks to claim the LQ Cup crown on Sunday afternoon when it faces Tennessee Tech at 12:30 p.m.
VMI 2, The Citadel 0
Charleston, S.C. ? VMI got some help from a couple of juniors as Alexa Bernas and Erin Squires each notched their first goal of the season to lead the Keydets to a 2-0 victory over The Citadel on Friday evening at WLI Field. The Keydets picked up their first win of the season as they evened their record 1-1-0, while the Bulldogs fell to 0-3-0.
VMI (1-1-0) scored one goal in each half of play. The first came on a penalty kick by Bernas at the 37:15 mark. Bernas led the Keydet attack as she was responsible for half of VMI’s 10 shots on the evening. The Keydets found the back of the net again in the 87th minute as Squires fired one from 25 yards out to give VMI a 2-0 advantage in the final minutes of the game.
VMI had 10 shots to the Bulldogs seven. The Dogs showed vast improvement from the first two games as they tallied four shots on goal compared to only one during the Caroline Pardee Invitational last weekend. VMI was also awarded the only four corner kicks.
“We played good soccer the entire game,” said head coach Bob Winch. “In the first two days of practice we talked about never letting the ball drop. The first goal the ball dropped in the box and the referee made the call, but if we had never let the ball drop in the first place we would not have been in that situation.”
The Bulldogs again had great energy in the backfield as sophomore Sarah Burke made her presence known and notched two shots on goal.
“Sarah put in a fantastic effort tonight,” commented Winch. “At the break, we singled Sarah out and challenged everyone on the field to play harder and stop watching. During the second half, everyone else brought it up to Sarah’s level. It will drop eventually for us.”
Keydet keeper Jessica Rheinlander picked up her first win of the season, playing the entire 90 minutes and accumulating four saves. Junior keeper Brit Bunnell played her third consecutive complete game, while making four stops of her own. Bunnell now has 190 career saves, enough to move her into second all-time in career saves at The Citadel. The leader is Angie Ellenwood with 226.
Next up, the Bulldogs will travel to Columbia, S.C. to face SEC power South Carolina on Sept. 5 at 5 p.m. at Eugene Stone III Stadium. VMI will travel to Staten Island, N.Y. for a 4 p.m. tilt against Wagner.
East Carolina 2, Western Carolina 0
Cullowhee, N.C. ? Despite out shooting visiting East Carolina 9-to-5 on Friday night, the Western Carolina Catamounts could not take advantage of scoring opportunities and dropped a 2-0 decision to the Pirates at the rain-soaked Catamount Athletic Complex.
The win for ECU was their second-in-a-row after falling in overtime in their season opener. It also marked the second-consecutive 2-0 victory over WCU, coupled with last year’s match in Greenville.
At the 15:07 mark of the first half, East Carolina took advantage of fresh legs to notch the first goal of the match. Freshman Kami York-Feirn entered the match and less than two minutes later scored her first goal of the season for her third seasonal point. York-Feirn’s classmate, Jessica Swanson secured a loose ball just outside the goal box and served it ahead. The Catamount defense attempted to screen York-Feirn away from the ball to allow goalkeeper, Alesha Row, to make a play, but the wet grass slowed the ball and York-Feirn was able to tap it into the lower left corner of the net.
Western (0-3-0) turned up the wick in the second half with multiple scoring opportunities but still could not manage the first goal of the season. In the 56th minute, junior Heather Dittmer uncorked WCU’s best scoring chance of the night as her shot from 13 yards out bounded off the cross bar. Three minutes later, an offsides call negated an odd man rush for Western, with a free kick from 20 yards out by junior Leah Daino inside the 61st minute sailed just out of reach of the WCU offense making a run on the Pirate cage.
East Carolina (2-1-0), though, put the game out of reach at the 83:28 mark when sophomore Blair Hefner centered a pass that slipped behind the WCU defense and freshman Sarah Kirkley scored on a shot from the penalty line.
Row, who suffered her third defeat of the season in goal for the Catamounts, tallied three saves in the loss, all coming in the second half. Offensively, juniors Melissa Berry and Bailey Culp led the team with two shots as nine different Cats recorded offerings. ECU’s keeper, Amber Campbell, only had to make one save to secure her second victory of ’06.
Western Carolina returns to action next Friday, Sept. 8, in El Paso, Texas in the Border Shootout. The Catamounts will face Texas State in one week and will conclude tournament play against Sam Houston State on Sunday, Sept. 10. The western road swing also includes a match at Nebraska, who is ranked in the Soccer Buzz Central region top 10.