UNCG 2, East Carolina 0
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Reigning Southern Conference Co-Player of the Year Tabitha Padgett picked up where she left off last season, scoring what would prove to be the game-winning goal in UNCG's 2-0 win over East Carolina to start the 2010 season Friday.
Padgett, who was also the SoCon Freshman of the Year in 2009, took a pass from senior captain Katie Evans and lofted a shot over East Carolina keeper Christiane Cordero from 25 yards out in the 15th minute.
UNCG (1-0) would add to its lead in the 33rd minute, scoring off a set piece. Junior Jaimey Etten sent a corner kick into the 6-yard box, and freshman Kory Spotts nodded it home upper left for her first career goal.
East Carolina (0-1) had nearly pulled level in the 28th minute, as Amanda Malkiewicz blasted a shot from about 18 yards out that UNCG keeper Kelsey Kearney batted into the air. Kearney was able to track it down on the line for the save.
The Pirates had another solid scoring chance in the 72nd minute, getting off a pair of shots off a corner kick. Maddie Maurer's attempt was blocked, but Stephanie Shaw came up with the rebound and ripped a shot that Kearney was able to corral to keep the shutout intact.
ECU's last real scoring threat came in the closing seconds, but Chrissy Gratz's shot from the right side of the box found the side netting.
Kearney continued her assault on UNCG's record book, as the junior logged five saves for her 20th career shutout. That moves her into a tie for third place on the Spartans' career list with Paula Domitrovits (1995-98).
Cordero, a freshman making her first career start, allowed two goals and did not make a save for the Pirates.
The Spartans put just two shots on frame in the contest, but made them both count. Overall shots were tied at seven apiece. Padgett had a game-high three.
UNCG held the advantage in corner kicks, 6-2.
Padgett's game-winner was the sixth of her career. Five of her eight goals last season were game-winners, tied for the league lead.
UNCG returns to action Monday when it will make the short trip to Winston-Salem, N.C., for a battle with Wake Forest at 7 p.m.. The Demon Deacons are ranked 10th in the NSCAA Preseason Top 25 and 15th in the Soccer America Preseason Top 25.
Western Carolina 2, Campbell 1
BUIES CREEK, N.C. - Western Carolina soccer (1-0) opened the 2010 season, under new Head Coach Chad Miller, with a 2-1 victory over Campbell University (0-1) Friday at the Eakes Complex.
Campbell scored a late goal to avoid the Catamount shutout, putting a ball in the net with 51 seconds left in the match. The Camels scored on a penalty kick by Kaili Terry.
The Catamounts took an early 2-0 lead, scoring both goals in the first 25 minutes of the contest. For most of the preseason, Miller hinted the freshmen and youngsters of the team would be looked to step up, and they did. Both goals were scored by Western Carolina freshmen.
Freshman defender Brittany Gendron scored the first Catamount goal of the season, and of the game, with a header off an assist by sophomore Laura Greb, who also led the team with four shots on goal. The second Western Carolina goal came about 17 minutes later, with another freshman leading the way, in Christine Kaznowski's unassisted left-footed shot just outside the box.
Western Carolina was out shot by Campbell 13-10. The Catamounts had seven shots in the first half and just three in the second. Senior goalkeeper Caitlin Williams had five saves in the game before giving up the late goal.
The Catamounts return to action August 27 against in-state rival UNC-Asheville. Match time is set for 4 p.m.
#15 Virginia Tech 2, Elon 1
ELON, N.C. -- Playing its earliest season-opening contest in program history, the Elon Phoenix women's soccer squad dropped a hard-fought 2-1 decision to the 15th-ranked Virginia Tech Hokies in front of over 200 fans from Elon's Rudd Field on Friday night.
The Hokies (1-0-0) jumped out to a 1-0 advantage in the 26th minute when Kelsey Billups split two Elon defenders off a pass from Kelly Conheeny and beat the Phoenix's Kristen Haney for the score. It would be the only score of the period.
Virginia Tech bolstered its lead in the 53rd minute when the duo of Conheeny and Billups teamed up again. This time, Billups fed a ball upfield that could have been broken up by an Elon defender, but was missed and found Conheeny who went in clear to the goal for the second Hokie tally.
The Phoenix (0-1-0) fought back and closed its deficit to just one when Brittany Hallberg lofted a shot over the head of Hokie keeper Dayle Colpitts for the goal at 82:40. The play began when Elon's Kimmie Krauss took the ball down the left side and was initially tackled by a Virginia Tech defender, but quickly regained possession. Krauss crossed the ball which was touched on by Alanna Winsper to Hallberg who settled and fired the shot from inside the box.
Elon kept the pressure up, but was unable to mount a game-tying goal.
"We were a little more patient in the second half," said Elon head coach Chris Neal. "We threw everything except the kitchen sink at them in the last 10 minutes."
Haney finished the night with five saves, including two on rapid-fire Hokie attempts midway through the final 45 minutes of play.
"Kristen played well tonight," noted Neal. "She handled herself very well and didn't really give up second chances."
Colpitts snared one save in goal for Virginia Tech.
Elon will train for a week before playing host to Campbell next Friday night at 8 p.m.
Jacksonville 3, Furman 2 (2 OT)
Greenville, S.C. -- Jacksonville's Liz Fink lined a shot past Furman goalkeeper Jessica Smith at the 102:59 mark to lift the Dolphins to a 3-2 double overtime victory over the Paladins in the women's soccer season opener for both schools Friday evening before a crowd of 2,177 at Stone Soccer Stadium.
Jessica Hurtado played a ball into the path of Fink rushing down the left channel and the junior hammered a one-timer into the lower-left corner for her first goal of the season.
After Furman's Rachel Shelnutt hit the post with a left-footed effort in the opening three minutes of the game, Hurtado scored on an assist from Courtney Conrad at 11:05 to put the Dolphins in front 1-0. In the 23rd minute, Jacksonville doubled the lead as Furman failed to clear a loose ball in the six-yard box following a JU corner kick and Devon Dowell poked in her first goal of the season.
Alexa Jones cut the lead in half at 47:20 taking a low cross from Shelnutt and turning a shot past JU keeper Alexa Rooney. At the 75:24 mark, freshman Dee Makris played a ball wide down the right side and Kitty Tryon hammered a shot into the far side netting to knot the game at 2-2 and eventually force overtime.
Furman managed a 21-12 edge in shot attempts, including 11-5 advantage in shots on goal, with both teams recording four corner kicks. Rooney stopped nine shots to pick up the win for the Dolphins while Smith totaled two saves in a losing effort for Furman.
Jacksonville travels to face Clemson on Sunday afternoon. Furman will continue its homestand against USC Upstate on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Stone Stadium.
Alabama 2, Samford 1
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. --- The Samford University soccer team mounted a valiant comeback late in the second half of play Friday, but eventually ran out of time in a hard-fought 2-1 loss against the Alabama Crimson Tide in a season-opening match held in front of a school-record crowd of 1,284 fans at the Alabama Soccer Complex.
"We just didn't show up for the first 10 or 15 minutes of the match," said Samford head coach Todd Yelton. "They scored that early goal and then we had to chase to the game from that point on. Then, we came right back, but missed the penalty kick and that would have made it 1-1. I really felt like we let one get away tonight."
With the loss, Samford (0-1) dropped to 1-2 in its all-time series against Alabama (1-0). Both of the Bulldogs' setbacks have occurred on the road in Tuscaloosa. Samford fell behind early in the match, and later trailed 2-0 midway through the second half of play, but then rallied late with a goal from sophomore Lindsay Matern.
Matern's score occurred during the 80th minute of action and trimmed Alabama's lead to 2-1. The Bulldogs pressed the Crimson Tide hard during the final 10 minutes of action, but couldn't punch a goal through for the equalizer.
With Friday's win, Alabama avenged a 3-0 loss at Samford last season. The in-state rivals have squared off three times, with each team winning on its home pitch.
"I have to give full credit to Alabama," Yelton said. "They were very opportunistic tonight and Victoria Fredericks is a handful. She's a fantastic player, but I thought that other than two situations, Paige Lanter did a very good job of marking her. That's a challenging task because she's a really good player."
The Crimson Tide jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the fourth minute of play when Brooke Rogers connected on a looping one-timer from 18 yards out. On the goal, which was scored three minutes and eight seconds into the match, Alabama's Veronika Wolfkeil earned the assist.
On the score, Alabama sent a counter-attack down the right side of the field with Wolfkeil in possession. The Crimson Tide's junior defender cruised down the sideline then sent a deep entry pass into the box which Rogers one-timed over Samford goalkeeper Alyssa Whitehead.
"Giving up an early goal will almost always hurt you," said Yelton. "Tonight, it definitely hurt us and I'm really disappointed with the way we started the game, but I was very proud of the team and how we finished the game."
Midway through the first period, Samford's Leah Leppert led an offensive charge for the Bulldogs down the left sideline. On the attack, Samford's senior forward slipped past a pair of Crimson Tide defenders and found herself one-v-one with Alabama goalkeeper Justine Bernier.
Bernier, who was nearly 20 yards away from the goal on the play, found herself as the last line of defense for the Crimson Tide and tackled Leppert in the corner of the box. As a result of the foul, Samford was awarded with a penalty-kick attempt in the 18th minute of the first half.
The Bulldogs' Lanter took the penalty-kick attempt at 17:16 with an opportunity to even the match at 1-1, but fired a laser that ricocheted off the crossbar two yards from the right post. The ball caromed off the bar and bounced high in the air directly in front of goal where Bernier grabbed the rebound.
In the first half of play, both teams registered six shot attempts. Five of Samford's six shots were on goal, while Alabama concluded the opening 45 minutes of play with four shots on goal. The Crimson Tide's Bernier tallied five saves in the first half. Samford's Whitehead, who led the NCAA in goals-against average a year ago with a stellar 0.31 mark, finished with four first-half saves.
Leppert paced the Bulldogs' offense in the first half with two shot attempts. Alabama's offensive attack was led by Rogers and Kendall Khanna.
Late in the second half of play, Alabama extended its lead to 2-0 as Rosaly Petriello connected on a penalty kick. Petriello tallied the goal during the 77th minute of play after she was ruled to have been fouled in the box by Lanter.
Less than three minutes after Alabama's second goal, Samford quickly responded with a goal of its own from sophomore Lindsay Matern. With the score, the Bulldogs trimmed the Crimson Tide's lead to 2-1. Matern's goal, the first of her career, was assisted by Lauren Cook who sent a crossing pass over the goalkeeper's outstretched arms and directly to Matern at the far end of the goal.
Matern entered the 2010 campaign after being forced to use a pair of medical redshirt seasons in 2007 and 2008. She also spent the 2009 season recovering from a third season-ending injury. Matern came to Samford as a highly-touted recruit in 2007, but has suffered an injury-plagued career. Matern is only a sophomore and still has two years of eligibility remaining after this season.
"I'm happy for Lindsay to score the goal, especially after everything she's been through," said Yelton. "I'm sure it was a great feeling for her. I consider this team a family and we've definitely seen all of the trials and tribulations that she's been through in her career, so for her to get a goal put a smile on my face for sure."
With less than two minutes remaining in the in-state matchup, Samford's true freshman Trine Taule nearly tallied the equalizing goal of the match as she fired a left-footed attempt on goal from 15 yards out. Taule's shot, which came from the left side of the box, was caught in the air by Bernier for the save. It marked Bernier's match-high ninth save of the night.
Samford's goalkeeper Whitehead finished the contest with eight saves.
"We have a young squad and this was a tough loss for us, but I will take from this game a lot of encouragement," Yelton said. "I think that we are going to be a really good team by the time this season is over and we showed some glimpses of that tonight."
The Samford University soccer team will next be in action Sunday at 6 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs travel to Memphis, Tenn., for another early-season test against the 18th-ranked Memphis Lady Tigers. The match will be held at Memphis' Mike Rose Soccer Complex.
Kennesaw State 4, College of Charleston 3
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - The College of Charleston women's soccer team was defeated, 4-3, in its season opener by the Owls of Kennesaw State on Friday night. The Cougars scored first in a back-and-forth match but were unable to hold off the Owls' attack.
CofC now stands at 0-1-0 on the year while Kennesaw State, also playing its season opener, moved to 1-0-0.
Sloane Levin (Hamburg, Mich.), a sophomore transfer from Virginia Tech, shined in her CofC debut with two goals.
Emilie Huser (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and McCallie Jones (Charlotte, N.C.) each added assists on the night. Sarah Schaidle (Simpsonville, S.C.) was a prominent figure in the Cougar attack as well with a team-high three shots.
"It was a good team effort," said head coach Christian Michner. "We matched up well with a very good Kennesaw team that is going to go on and do great things this year in their conference and nationally. We will take a lot of positives away from this. We scored some good goals, but we have some things we need to work on in practice next week."
The Owls dominated the early going and kept the Cougars pinned in their defensive third for the opening minutes of the match.
CofC responded, however, and found the net first in the 10th minute when Huser went on a brilliant run up the middle and forced a shot into the charging Owls' keeper, Staci Pugh. Pugh stopped the initial attempt but the rebound found the foot of Levin who made a move around the sprawling keeper to find the back of the net.
Huser made another run moments later off a perfectly-threaded through ball from the foot of Lindsay Frey (Cincinnati, Ohio). Huser drove all the way to the six yard mark but was denied by a beautiful kick save by Pugh.
The Owls evened the score in the 20th minute when the Cougars allowed a cross from Brittany Vining to trickle unplayed through their back line from the left corner. The ball went all the way through the box where Alyssa Mahan roofed the ball into the top-right corner of the net to even the score.
Kennesaw gained the lead four minutes later with another cross into the box. This time, Alma Gardarsdottir netted the ball with assists from Thais Gibson and Jade Dempster.
The teams played the wet field conditions physically for the remainder of the half but neither managed to find the net. Schaidle threatened with quality shots from the top of the box late in the half but couldn't equalize the match in the first period.
Michner ignited his squad coming out of the locker room and the team led an intense attack in the opening seconds of the second half. Levin made the most of the Cougars' early second-half offensive rush and netted the tying goal just a minute and half into the period. She gathered a rebound in the box and maneuvered around the keeper to find the open net.
The Owls retook the lead once again, however, when a costly turnover on the Cougars' back line positioned Kristin Marietta one-on-one with the keeper. Marietta capitalized on the situation with a ball well out of the reach of the Cougars' extended keeper, Cricket Wise (Walhalla, S.C.).
CofC was not deterred when it fell behind again and remained resilient on the attack. In the 62nd minute, Jones created space at the top of the box and attracted extra defenders to free up Hope Atkinson (Rumson, N.J.) just inside the top left corner of the box. Atkinson ripped a shot from there which left no chance for the diving keeper and found the back-right corner of the net.
The 3-3 tie held until the 86th minute when the Owls found their way onto the scoreboard yet again. They did so with tight-knit passing in the box which eventually positioned Savannah Duet in front of an open net. Brittany Vining picked up her second assist of the night and Katie Scott tallied an assist as well.
The Cougars pushed up the pitch for the remainder of the match but were unable to find the equalizer and ultimately fell by the 4-3 final score.
"Both teams love to get forward," Michner said. "They put us under a lot of pressure and we felt that we put them under a good amount of pressure. We feel like we have a lot of great kids that can go forward, can create, can be dangerous and be explosive up top. It was a good chance for our players to show their stuff. It looks like we are going to hopefully score a lot of goals this year. We just need to work on the other side of the pitch to keep balls out of our net."
The Cougars return to action on Monday, Aug. 23 with a match at Charleston Southern at 4 p.m.
Lipscomb 2, Chattanooga 1
NASHVILLE, Tenn. --- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's soccer team fell 2-1 to Lipscomb Friday evening to Lipscomb in Nashville in the season-opener for both teams.
The Lady Mocs (0-1-0) scored early off a corner kick. Sophomore Hayley Sloan's (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) corner kick was picked up by senior Kelly Downs (Hixson, Tenn.) and sent into the net for the first goal of the game at the 19:06 mark.
That would be all the scoring for Chattanooga as the Bisons picked up a pair of goals in the second half for the win. Lipscomb's equalizer came in the 64th minute as Hunter Summers took a pass from Tatjana Shirley. Just two-and-a-half minutes later, Meghan McGuire notched the game winner on a pass from Jenna Price at the 65:48 mark.
The Lady Mocs outshot Lipscomb 20-14 with UTC controlling the ball with a 12-4 shots advantage. The Bisons outshot Chattanooga 10-8 in the second half and had an 11-7 shots on goal advantage.
UTC sophomore Taylor Davidson (Ooltewah, Tenn.) managed eight of the Lady Mocs' nine saves in 82:34 in goal while freshman Taylor Mangrum (Franklin, Tenn.) held off one attempt by Lipscomb in the final 7:26 of play.
Lipscomb's keeper Erin Zerio managed six saves in the game giving up just the one goal.
Chattanooga will open the home slate of its schedule with a return to Finley Stadium Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. The Lady Mocs have not played a game at Finley since October 2004. Admission is free to all Chattanooga home games this fall. Immediately following the game, fans will have a chance to meet student-athletes from soccer, volleyball, football and cross country at "Meet the Mocs" at Finley Stadium.
Troy 6, Wofford 1
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The women's soccer team took a long trek to get to Troy, Ala., where they faced the Trojans in the regular season opener. The Terriers had a great opportunity to defeat a strong Trojan team, but they fell short in the end.
The Terriers opened up play at the Jesse H. Colley Soccer Complex on a cloudy, overcast evening. The game was held scoreless halfway into the first half, in part to a couple of saves by Katie McChesney. In the 21st minute Troy's Nikkie Stamaris was able to slip it past McChesney off an assist by Ruth Sutcliffe. Wofford's Nikki Siebert countered with a shot of her own, but it was handled by the Trojan keeper, Ashley Branham.
In the 30th minute, Coach Amy Kiah subbed in Emily Bougas, Alex Kachulis, Amanda Morris, Megan Polson, Maggie Bosley, and Chelsea Ashworth to give the Terriers fresh legs to finish the half. Late in the second half the Trojans were able to knock in two more. Ashworth put an attempt on frame with four minutes left in the half to try to reduce the deficit to two, but the shot was saved. Entering halftime the Terriers trailed 3-0.
The second half was similar to the first half as Troy was able to knock on three more goals. Siebert, Bosley and Phillips were able to get a shot off a piece, and McChesney blocked three shots in the second half. Near the end of regulation the Terriers got on board with an own goal by Troy. The final score was 6-1.
The Terriers are back on the road this Sunday, ready to challenge Alabama State at 2 p.m. in Montgomery, Ala.
Georgia Southern vs. Winthrop - cancelled due to weather
STATESBORO, Ga. - The season opening contest for the Georgia Southern Women's Soccer Team against Winthrop was cancelled due to consistent lightning strikes in the area of Eagle Field.
At the time of the first delay, Georgia Southern was leading 1-0. Sara Oland (Evans, Ga.) found the back of the net on an assist by Danae Kaimuloa (Escondido, Calif.). The junior beat a sliding Sarah Schippers, the Winthrop goalkeeper, bouncing the ball off Schippers legs for the score in the fourth minute.
With 18:45 left in the first half, the game was stopped for lightning. The game was delayed for over two hours before the decision was made to cancel. The game is not considered official because it did not reach the required 70 minute mark. No makeup date has been scheduled.
The Eagles will travel to Macon, Ga., to take on Mercer Sunday, Aug. 22 at 2 p.m. Fans can follow live stats at www.georgiasoutherneagles.com, or score updates at twitter.com/gsscores.