Oct. 1, 2004
Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina (6-5-1, 0-2-1 SEC) and Georgia (2-5-3, 0-2-1 SEC) battled to a 1-1 tie on Friday evening at Stone Stadium in SEC women’s soccer action. After trailing by one goal, USC junior defender Jackie Welch converted a penalty kick at 61:18 to knot the match at one. South Carolina returns to action on Sunday at 1 p.m. as the Gamecocks host defending SEC champion No. 19 Tennessee at Stone Stadium. The USC men’s team will host Gardner Webb at 4 p.m. following USC-Lady Vols match.
“I think we came out at the start and played very hard and we improved on our play from last week and competed the entire match,” said USC head coach Shelley Smith. “It was a very physical match and we did a good job coming back after going down a goal. We’ve learned to weather a deficit better and come from behind. In the past after letting up a goal we’ve been on our heels but tonight I thought we fought and were determined to stay in the match. We had some very good chances at the end of the second half to score against a good Georgia team.”
In her first appearance in two weeks for USC, freshman goalkeeper Lindsay Thorstenson had a strong game in goal for the Gamecocks with seven saves on the afternoon. Georgia keeper Ashley Lindley made four saves between the posts for the Bulldogs.
The first half saw neither team score with USC controlling the play for a majority of the first 45 minutes. USC held a 7-3 shot advantage after the first half with near misses on goal attempts by midfielders Ashley Kirk and Amanda Thurber.
Georgia went ahead 1-0 at 54:17 off a direct kick by Elizabeth Metherell. Just outside the right half corner of the 18, Metherell knocked a shot through the USC wall that got past Thorstenson to give the Bulldogs a one-goal edge.
The one-goal lead would be short though as USC bounced back to tie the match over seven minutes later. On a cross into the box, USC’s Sarah Lentz was knocked down and resulted in a penalty kick. Welch, who converted a penalty kick earlier in the season vs. James Madison, knocked a shot to the left corner post and out of the reach of Lindley for USC’s goal.
Amanda Thurber led the way for South Carolina with five shots on the evening with Ashley Williams adding three and Welch taking two shots. Georgia finished the night with a 15-12 shot advantage with six shots coming in the final two overtime periods. Karen Zmirak had seven shots to lead Georgia.
