University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Soccer Suffers First Loss Of Season, 3-0
9/16/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Files associated with this release:
Southern Miss-Samford Box Score
Soccer Suffers First Loss Of Season, 3-0
HATTIESBURG, Miss.? The Southern Miss Lady Eagle soccer team dropped its first match of the season today, a 3-0 defeat at Samford.
With the loss, Southern Miss falls to 3-1-1 on the season, while Samford improves to 5-0-2. It was also Samford?s first ever victory over Southern Miss.
"I think we played well," Southern Miss Head Soccer Coach Gail Macklin said. "We were a better team in the first half, but came out slow in the second half. Samford's first goal came off a deflection and they also got a goal in the final 20 seconds of the match. Overall, they were sharper than us.
"We're disappointed with the loss," Macklin said. "We made some silly mistakes that resulted in the loss. We've got to take this as a learning experience and move forward. The players' attitude is good."
The two teams played a scoreless first period, despite a 7-2 shooting advantage in the period for the Lady Eagles.
In the second half, Samford?s Heather Birdsell scored the game?s first goal at the 47:51 mark to put Samford ahead, thanks to an assist from Sharon Young.
The Lady Bulldogs scored again at the 50:09 mark, on a goal by Marian Wagner, off an assist from Kim Matthews and Rebecca Bohler.
Samford?s Candace Clippard scored the final goal of the contest at the 89:48 mark.
Southern Miss finished the match outshooting Samford 13-9.
"One positive is that we are creating opportunities to score," Macklin said. "We've got to get them to go in."
Micah Stephens and Megan Kolts each had three shots in the match for Southern Miss, with the duo also posting two shots on goal. Birdsell finished with four shots, including four on goal for Samford.
Freshman Holly Cox finished with a career-high five saves in goal tonight for Southern Miss.
Southern Miss returns to action on Sunday, facing
