Oct. 15, 2004
Columbia, S.C. – An early first half goal from Hillary Beckman at 13:35 was enough to give Ole Miss a 1-0 victory over the South Carolina women’s soccer team on Friday evening at Stone Stadium. USC’s record moves to 6-8-2 on the year and 0-5-2 in the SEC with Ole Miss 7-8 and 3-4 in conference play. Carolina returns to action on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. when the Gamecocks host Mississippi State at 1 p.m. at Stone Stadium.
“Our team played hard out there tonight and they did what we asked them to do,” said USC head coach Shelley Smith. “The effort was great. Ole Miss capitalized on a mistake we made in the back and it’s unfortunate because we played well today. It was a battle and we did well to compete.”
Beckman scored the lone goal of the match in the 14th minute for her first of the season. Leigh Barrow’s cross in the box was misplayed by USC goalkeeper Lindsay Thorstenson with Beckman at the doorstep of the goal and able to take advantage and knock a shot into the net.
South Carolina pressured the Ole Miss net several times in the second half and outshot the Rebels 6-4 in the second half and 9-8 in the match. Junior Amanda Thurber came close when she blasted a shot from outside the “18” at 60:41 that went just above the crossbar. Freshman midfielder Courtney Cobbs also was in on the goal twice only to see one of her shots go wide and the other saved by Ole Miss goalkeeper Ann Shelton. USC also almost put in their first goal at 85:38 on freshman midfielder Ashley Kirk’s shot from just outside the box that was denied by Shelton. Shelton finished with four saves on the evening for Ole Miss.
“I thought we outplayed them in the second half and created several scoring chances on their goal but we couldn’t get one to go in,” said Coach Smith. “We have to continue to work on being more dangerous in the offensive 1/3 of the field.”
Kirk, Thurber and Cobbs all finished the night with two shots for Carolina to lead the offensive attack. Kelly Renie had two shots to lead Ole Miss.
