Furman 2, North Florida 1
Jacksonville, Fla. -- Freshman Ali Simpson scored with just 31 seconds remaining in regulation to break a 1-1 tie and give the Furman women's soccer team a 2-1 victory over the University of North Florida on Sunday at the Ashley Sports Complex in Jacksonville, Fla.
India Robinson curled a corner kick into the box with less than a minute to play and Simpson prevailed in a scramble in front of goal as she poked a shot past Osprey goalkeeper Megan Dorsey for her first collegiate goal at 89:29.
The victory improved Furman to 2-3-0 on the season while North Florida slipped to 3-2-1.
"It was great for our confidence to come from behind and win today," said Furman head coach Andrew Burr. "Jessica Smith made two or three outstanding saves and did a great job leading our back line."
Smith, a senior from Franklin, Tenn., notched 10 saves to earn the victory for the Paladins while Dorsey stopped three shots for North Florida. The Osprey outshot Furman 25-14, including 12-5 in shots on goal.
North Florida jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 13th minute. Heather Botelho delivered a free kick into the box and Keara Murphy headed a shot past Smith for the first goal of the match. Furman pulled even minutes before intermission as Alexa Morse slid a pass behind the defense and senior Rachel Shelnutt held off her defender while firing past Dorsey for the equalizer at 40:21
Furman returns to action on Friday, September 9, when it faces UNC Wilmington in the opening match of the Carolinas' Cup at Historic Riggs Field in Clemson, S.C. Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. The Paladins will battle Clemson in the tournament finale on Sunday.
Wofford 5, UNC Asheville 0
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Emily Bougas scored two goals Sunday afternoon to lead the Wofford Terriers to a 5-0 win over UNC Asheville in women's soccer action at Snyder Field.
Wofford improves to 4-0-0 on the season, while Asheville falls to 4-0-0 overall.
Chelsea Ashworth scored the first goal of the match in the 12th minute of play, rocketing a shot from 18 yards out to the top left corner of the net.
In the 15th minute, Bougas blasted a shot from 12 yards out past UNCA keeper Heather Muller to set the score at 2-0.
The Terriers scored once more in the first half of play, as Maggie O'Brien found the back of the net from nearly 12 yards away following a pass from Anne Phillips.
In the 58th minute of play, Bougas was fouled inside the 18-yard box, setting up a penalty kick. The sophomore from Grayson, Ga. put the ball into the back right corner of the net to set the score at 4-0. The goal was her fifth of the season.
In the 78th minute, Shonte Campbell scored her first career goal, taking a shot from the right side of the 18-yard box, putting it past the reach of Muller into the lower left corner of the net to put the score at 5-0 in Wofford's favor.
The match saw lots of offensive output, as the two teams combined for a total of 33 shots, with 18 being on goal.
Terrier goalkeeper Erika Christensen was awarded the win, picking up 4 saves in 51 minutes of play. Freshman Kara Boggs played the remaining 39 minutes in goal for Wofford, earning 5 saves. Muller played all 90 minutes in goal for UNCA, earning 4 saves.
The 4-0 start to the season for the Terriers marks the best start the squad has had since the 2000 season, where the team began with a 7-0 record.
Wofford will return to action this Friday evening as the Terriers host Alabama State. The match is set for a 7:00 p.m. start time at Snyder Field.
Appalachian State 1, Longwood 0 (2 OT)
FARMVILLE, Va. - With less than two minutes remaining in the second overtime period, freshman Julia Holz scored the game's only goal as Appalachian State women's soccer edged Longwood, 1-0, on Sunday afternoon. The Mountaineers improve to 2-3-0 on the year, while the Lancers slide to 1-3-2.
Longwood made aggressive strides in the first half, earning three shots and three corners in the first 12 minutes. The Mountaineers controlled the action late in the period, notching a pair of shots and a corner to close the half.
ASU added five shots in the second half, but Longwood keeper Kyra Byron stifled the attack, and the game advanced to overtime.
Senior Katy Dodd took the only shot by either team in the first extra period, but her shot drifted wide right, and the teams prepared to play 10 final minutes.
ASU senior Sydney Hill put a shot on goal 30 seconds into the final stanza, but Byron made yet another save. Longwood responded with a shot on goal minutes later.
With 94 seconds to play, Dodd injected a pass in front of the Lancers' goal. Leah Drawdy put a foot on it, and Holz made the final redirect to put the ball in the back of the net to give ASU its second win of the season. The goal was her second of the season.
With the draw, ASU keeper Amy Kolowsky earned the first shutout of her college career; she totaled a season-best eight saves.
The overtime victory was the Mountaineers' first since 2007, when they defeated the Lancers 1-0 in the first extra period. ASU's only other OT wins since 2000 were a pair of double-overtime wins in 2004 against Radford and Western Carolina.
Appalachian plays its next home game at home in one week when the Mountaineers host UNC Asheville on Sunday, September 11 at ASU Soccer Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.
No. 23 Tennessee 2, UNCG 0
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Tennessee's Kylie Bono had a goal and an assist as the nationally ranked Lady Vols downed UNCG at the UNCG Soccer Stadium on Sunday, 2-0.
The Spartans (1-3) hung tough with the Lady Vols (5-1), ranked 18th in the country by SoccerTimes.com and 23rd in the NSCAA/Continental Tire Top 25, and were less than two minutes from taking a scoreless game into the break. Tennessee got on the board in the 44th minute, however, with Bono collecting Iyana Moore's rebounded shot and banking it in off the right post from about 15 yards out for what would prove to be the game-winner.
The Lady Vols added an insurance goal in the 83rd minute, with Bono slipping a through ball to Alexis Owens in the midfield and Owens racing in for the breakaway goal, her first of the season.
The first-half damage could have been worse for the Spartans if not for a few spectacular plays by UNCG keeper Kelsey Kearney. After Kearney took down Tennessee's Emily Dowd in the box in the 29th minute, Kearney guessed right on Bono's ensuing penalty kick, going to her right and knocking the ball out of harm's way to fire up the home crowd.
Kearney also had a couple of point-blank saves in the first half, as she stopped attempts by Caroline Brown and Owens from less than 8 yards out.
"We talked about several keys to the game to beating a team like Tennessee," UNCG coach Steve Nugent said. "The first thing we put on the board this morning was that we had to have tremendous goalkeeping, and we did get that today, without question."
UNCG freshman Ashley Stokes had one of UNCG's two shots in the first half, but Tennessee keeper Julie Eckel easily wrapped up the attempt. Kristin Player had the Spartans' only other attempt in the opening frame, as she took a free kick from about 10 yards outside the 18-yard box on the left wing. Eckel was also able to corral Player's curling shot to keep the Spartans off the board.
Player tried pull UNCG level just 26 seconds into the second frame, as she tried to chip Eckel from the right wing, about 25 yards out. Eckel was also able to make that stop, one of her five saves on the afternoon.
Freshman Shea Glaspey had perhaps UNCG's best scoring chance of the day, as she one-timed a Player cross off a corner kick toward the upper left corner of the goal in the 63rd minute. Eckel, Tennessee's true freshman starter who has yielded just four goals in six matches, was again up to the task to keep UNCG scoreless.
Kearney, who matched Eckel save-for-save, faced 16 shots on the afternoon.
"We spend a lot of time working on how we're going to defend," Nugent said. "I thought the girls read service very well. Tennessee's a fairly direct team. We know what their strengths are. Their strengths are their front five players. The front five players are as good as anybody we've seen so far. We knew that they were going to try to find them early and often, but I thought our backs did a really good job of pressing them. I thought the cover was really good."
UNCG held Tennessee's top two scorers, Brown and Emily Dowd, to just a combined three shots.
The road does not get any easier for UNCG, which has faced three teams so far this season that have been ranked in the top 25 nationally. The Spartans will take on No. 1 North Carolina and another top-10 team, Duke, next weekend at the Duke Nike Classic in Durham, N.C.
"We look forward to the opportunity to play the best teams in the country," Nugent said. "It does help us with the conference, without a question."
Vanderbilt 2, College of Charleston 0
TAMPA, Fla. - The College of Charleston women's soccer team fell, 2-0, in the final game of the University of South Florida Tournament on Sunday afternoon.
"It was a very even match that saw two teams attacking and creating chances," said head coach Christian Michner. "Vanderbilt is a good team and took advantage of two miscues on our part. Good teams will do that to you. They'll make you pay for simple mistakes. We certainly had our share of chances and need to capitalize on those opportunities if we want to win games like this.
"I'm very proud of the effort this team gave all weekend. We are growing everyday together and more and more becoming the team that we want to be."
The match's parity was apparent in the stat sheet. Vanderbilt outshot the Cougars by a narrow, 10-9 margin and put five shots on goal compared to CofC's two.
Both of the Commodores' goals were unassisted and came in the second half. Dana Schwartz put them in the board in the 55th minute and Cherrelle Jarrett provided the insurance goal in the 81st minute.
Hannah Gmerek (Piedmont, S.C.) led the Cougars in shots with three. Freshman Taylor Avery (Clifton, Va.) saw her first action as a Cougar and logged 14 minutes in goal.
The Cougars will now prepare for the College of Charleston Cup to be played Friday, Sept. 9 and Sunday, Sept. 11 at Patriots Point. The Cougars play Cincinnati on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Old Dominion on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. in the tournament finale.
Navy 2, The Citadel 1 (2 OT)
Charleston, S.C. - The Citadel women's soccer team was downed, 2-1, in a hard fought battle against military rival, Navy (3-2-1) on Sunday afternoon at WLI Field in game two of The Citadel Nike Classic. The loss evened the Bulldogs' record at 2-2 for the season.
Both teams played tough in the first half with stellar defensive play from seniors Hannah Warne, Leah Hawkins and Shanna Couch, who allowed just four shots in the opening 45 minutes. The Citadel kept the ball on their end of the field for most of the first half, but it took almost 24 minutes for the Bulldogs to land their first shot on goal, a 20-yard laser by sophomore Vanessa Aponte that was nabbed by Naval Academy's goalkeeper, Alexes Lopez-Shaw.
The two teams continued to play scoreless soccer until the 44 minute mark when Aponte drilled an unassisted goal to the back of the net to give The Citadel a 1-0 halftime lead.
Tempers flared in the second half of play as the rain began to fall harder in Charleston. A total of four yellow cards were handed out, two to each team, as both sides were playing physical soccer. The Midshipmen were able to handle the ball better in the second half, forcing 14 shots to The Citadel's four, including a 72nd minute deflected goal by Paloma Perez that slipped past goalkeeper Laura Serafino to even the score at one goal apiece.
No decision was made in the first 90 minutes of play, so the teams entered a sudden death, 10-minute overtime period. The Naval Academy was able to maintain possession in Bulldog territory for most of the first overtime, firing three shots at Serafino to no avail as The Citadel defense thwarted the Mids again.
However, Navy would only need five minutes of the second 10-minute overtime period, as Mids forward Ashlynn Soelner squeezed one in off a deflected cross-bar shot. The sudden death overtime goal would end the thriller for the Bulldogs as they fell, 2-1.
"We played some of the best soccer this year in the first half and now we need to work on keeping that level for the full 90 minutes," said Warne.
The Citadel will have a week to rest before heading to Oxford, Miss. to take on Ole Miss on Sept. 12. The meeting between the Bulldogs and the Rebels will be their first in program history.
Harvard 2, Elon 1
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The Elon University women's soccer team came back from a goal down to tie Harvard in the 83rd minute, but the Crimson's Elizabeth Weisman managed to score in the 87th minute to hand the Phoenix a 2-1 setback on Sunday afternoon, September 4, at the Soldiers Field Soccer Stadium. Elon drops to 1-3-1 on the year, while Harvard improves to 1-1.
"Harvard presented an excellent road challenge for us this afternoon. We found ourselves where we wanted to be in the second half after going scoreless in the first half with the wind in our face," said Elon head women's soccer coach Chris Neal. "We played well in the second half and had opportunities to go ahead 2-1, but it wasn't our day."
After Harvard scored in the 58th minute to take a 1-0 lead following a scoreless first half of play, the Phoenix gained momentum after sophomore Kimmie Krauss' blast from sophomore Catherine Brinkman landed in the back right corner of the net from 12 yards out to make it a 1-1 match.
But four minutes later, the Crimson managed to reclaim the lead after Weisman scored on a rebound from the right side off a previous shot and save by Phoenix goalie Kate Murphy to make it 2-1 game late.
The Phoenix managed to get into Harvard territory late with a chance to send the match to overtime, but the Crimson managed to hold Elon off for the final three minutes to secure the victory.
Harvard outshot Elon 29-11 and claimed a 12-2 advantage in corner kicks in the match, but the Phoenix landed a total of seven shots on-goal to the Crimson's 11.
Brinkman registered a total of five shots (four on goal) in the loss to threaten the Crimson defense all afternoon.
Melanie Baskind scored Harvard's first goal to make it a 1-0 match in the 58th minute, as her strike following a pass from the left of the box managed to get behind Murphy. Baskind also assisted on the Crimson's goal in the 87th minute of the match.
Harvard outshot Elon 16-6 in the opening frame and claimed an 8-1 advantage in corner kicks. Shannon Cosgrove tallied five saves in the first half to help stave off the Crimson offense.
Elon returns to action on September 9 when it hosts North Florida at Rudd Field at 5 p.m.
UNC Wilmington 2, Davidson 1
Story to follow.