Monday, September 03, 2007

COLUMBIA, S.C. (Sept. 3, 2007) - The ETSU women's soccer team fell to SEC opponent South Carolina, 5-2 on Monday night at Stone Stadium. The Bucs are now 0-1-1 on the season while the Gamecocks improve to 2-0.

South Carolina, who defeated preseason No. 1 North Carolina on Saturday, got off to a fast start as Darcel Mollon found the back of the net twice in the first seven minutes of the game to give the Gamecocks the 2-0 advantage.

The Bucs continued to battle as sophomore Danielle Bayles (Atlanta, Ga.) had her shot on goal saved by South Carolina keeper Lindsay Thorstenson. The Gamecocks would score three more times to give them a 5-0 advantage going into halftime.

In the second period the Bucs continued to persevere as sophomore Krista Toliver (Arlington, Texas) placed a corner kick in front of the goal which newcomer Rachel Van Horn (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) passed to fellow newcomer Terri Miller (Cape Coral, Fla.) who shot the ball past the Gamecock keeper. Two minutes later the Bucs scored again as Van Horn found the back of the net from 15 yards out on a passes from Miller and junior transfer Katie Green (Knoxville, Tenn.).

"It was a great opportunity for us to come out and play such a high level opponent. They just beat UNC who was ranked first in the preseason polls. We are a very young team and we have some injuries and we were just a little unsteady coming into the match. We are still working on maturing our game and in the second half we were able to learn from our mistakes and create some opportunities to score." said head coach Heather Henson. "I'm just really proud of our team for not giving up and persevering against such a high level team."

ETSU will be back in action this weekend as they travel to participate in the Gamecock Soccer Classic hosted by Jacksonville State. The Bucs will face former Southern Conference opponent The Citadel on Friday, September 7 at 5 p.m. CST before facing Youngstown State on Sunday, September 9 at 1 p.m. CST.

For all ETSU women's soccer action, please visit www.ETSUBucs.com.