Sept. 10, 2004
Charlottesville, Va. – The South Carolina women’s soccer team had their three-game winning streak snapped Friday afternoon as the Gamecocks were defeated by Maryland 5-2 in the first game of the Virginia Nike Soccer Classic. Ashley Williams scored a goal for the third consecutive game and Jenna Ball added a goal and an assist as the Gamecocks dropped their second game of the year. South Carolina is now 4-2 on the season and will face No. 4 Virginia on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. Despite the loss, South Carolina finished the match with a 15-11 shot advantage as well as a 7-1 edge in corner kicks.
“We played them very well for most the match but lost 5-2,” said USC head coach Shelley Smith. “Maryland did a good job coming out in the second half and their was a span of about 10 minutes that we fell apart. We gave up bad goals and you can’t do that against teams. It was very unlike us. I thought we battled and continued to create scoring chances but couldn’t get a couple more to go in.”
The Gamecocks got off to a great start and had a 1-0 lead after the first half of play. Williams put the Gamecocks on top by a goal as she scored on a breakaway off an assist from Ball in the 39th minute of play.
Maryland would control the first 20 minutes of the second half though and scored four straight goals to gain the edge over USC. The Terapins quickly tied the match in the second half with a goal off a free kick 35 seconds into play. Danielle Malagari launched a free kick into the box that was headed in by Mallory Mahar to knot the game at one apiece. Maryland went ahead 2-1 at 48:22 as Kelly Rozumalski knocked an 18-yard shot past South Carolina goalkeeper Lindsay Thorstenson.
Moments after Maryland went up by a goal, the Gamecocks almost evened the match at 2-2 on a header by Jessi Swaim that went off the crossbar.
Two minutes later the Terapins would increase the lead to 3-1 at 54:06 scoring off another free kick, this time with Nataly Arias flicking the free kick from Kimmy Francis into ths corner of the goal. Mahar would score her second goal of the match off a cross from Francis to extend their lead to three goals.
South Carolina broke through late in the match in the 87th minute as Ball scored her first goal of the season. The sophomore stole a pass and put in the goal on a breakaway.
“Jenna played her best game in a Gamecock uniform,” said Coach Smith. “She competed, ran hard and took advantage of her minutes. That’s what we need out of her and everyone else.”
Maryland would finish the match up with five seconds remaining as Francis caught USC backup goalkeeper Laura Armstrong out of the goal and launched a shot from 40 yards out to seal the match.
