MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - The College of Charleston women's soccer team opened its regular-season campaign with a 2-1 loss to Charlotte at Patriots Point on Saturday evening.
The Cougars were the more possessive and perhaps better team for most of the match but back-to-back 49er second-half goals wiped away the Cougars' first-half lead.
The Cougars got off to a bit of a slow start and struggled to connect passes in the early minutes. The team settled in, however, and played a crisper brand of soccer through the rest of the first half to gain and maintain possessions in the middle and offensive thirds of the field.
With just over a minute remaining in the first half, the Cougars broke the scoreless draw with Sarah Cardamone's first goal of the season. Maryam Buazza played a long ball over the 49er defense that fell to Cardamone, who was one-on-one with the keeper. Cardamone was able to corral the ball away from the charging keeper and rolled it into the back of the net.
The Cougars outshot Charlotte, 7-4, in the first 45 minutes. CofC ended the match with a 12-10 advantage in shots and put seven on the frame. The Cougars also produced five corner kicks opposed to the 49ers' two.
Charlotte came out more aggressively in a physically contested second half which brought on 13 total fouls in the 45 minutes.
In the 69th minute, Taylor Rovito played a ball across the top of the 18-yard box, where Amanda Jones tucked it in to the bottom right-hand corner to equalize the match.
Five minutes later, Rovito again picked up an assist on Charlotte's go-ahead goal, this time threading a pass through the left side of the field to Sara Trexler, who gathered it in stride and scored to the far-side netting.
In the dying minutes of the match, the Cougars produced three consecutive corner-kick chances but none were fruitful as the clock ultimately expired and finalized the 2-1 score.
The Cougars return to action when they head to Conway, S.C., to take on Western Michigan on Friday, Aug. 24, at 5 p.m. as part of the Coastal Carolina Tournament.