October 15, 2001

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina women’s soccer team (6-4-3, 1-3-1) tied LSU, 4-4, Sunday afternoon at the LSU Soccer Complex. Four different players scored goals for USC in this afternoon’s tie. Sophomore Becca Epstein finished the game with a goal and an assist.

“The first half was very strange and the game kept going back and forth,” said USC Head Coach Shelley Smith. “Both teams made mistakes defensively. In the second half we had a lot of chances to go ahead with the lead.”

The Gamecocks finished the match with a 29-12 shot advantage and almost came away with the game-winning goal in the second overtime. Off the corner kick, midfielder Jess Julin came close to scoring, as the ball bounced off the crossbar and just near the goalline.

“We were right there several times and we just couldn’t get the bounce,” said Coach Smith. Our team did a good job of getting scoring chances. We were a little unlucky and I thought we could have scored on a couple of occasions.”

South Carolina opened the match at 8:55 with an unassisted goal from sophomore Meredith McPartland. McPartland scored the opening goal in the match from 15 yards out. LSU responded less then two minutes later as Stacie McDougall knocked in a header off the goal kick to tie the match at 1-1.

USC took the lead back at 22:48 as junior co-captain Melinda Carter tallied in her third goal of the year with a header off the assist from sophomore Becca Epstein. LSU came back again less then two minutes later with another goal, as Rachel Cohen knocked in an unassisted goal, tying the match 2-2.

The Tigers went ahead for the first time at 33:58 as Artie Brown knocked in a goal from 10 yards out to give LSU a 3-2 lead. South Carolina wasn’t done though, as junior midfielder Kanika McAlpine scored her first goal of the season, off the Jess Julin assist, to tie the match at 3-3.

The Gamecocks came out strong in the second half to take a 4-3 lead as Becca Epstein notched her fourth goal of the year with a shot to the upper right corner.

The Tigers were not done though, as they finished the scoring at 72:28. LSU defender Ashley Mitnick scored off a direct kick to tie the match at four. The goal was the first by an opponent against USC in the second half.

South Carolina will be on the road again next week, traveling to Georgia for a Friday evening match at 7 p.m. USC finishes its road trip on Sunday at Tennessee.

Source: USCSPORTS.COM