SC-Illinois Box Score
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Aug. 25, 2006
Columbia, Mo. – South Carolina women’s soccer gave 13th ranked Illinois all it could handle before a breakaway goal by Ella Masar in the 84th minute of play lifted the Fighting Illini to a 1-0 win over Carolina at the Tiger Invitational on the campus of the University of Missouri. Ella Masar scored with a shot to the far post as Illinois defeated the Gamecocks in the 2006 season opener for both teams. South Carolina (0-1) returns to action on Sunday afternoon at 12 noon ET against the Iowa Hawkeyes on day two of the Tiger Inivitational.
“I thought we had a positive start to the season and showed a lot of promise despite the loss,” said USC head coach Shelley Smith. “It’s a tough loss because our players battled hard against a very good team.”
South Carolina stayed with the nationally ranked Illini as the Gamecocks held a 10-6 shot advantage including four shots on goal. Junior midfielder Ashley Kirk and senior forward Darcel Mollon each put two shots on net to lead the Carolina attack. Junior goalkeeper Laura Armstrong played all 90 minutes and finished with two saves.
USC received a break late into the first half when Illinois goalkeeper Lindsey Carstens was issued a red card in the 39th minute of action. Carolina came close to going ahead by a goal as a ball played forward and just above the “18” was hand-balled by Carstens outside of the box resulting in an immediate red card call by the referee. The red card allowed the Gamecocks to gain a one-player advantage with the Fighting Illini having to compete with just 10 players for the rest of the match.
“We did a good job to build an attack,” said Smith. “Illinois did well after going down a player and they played strong as a group despite having one less player on the field,” said Smith.
Both teams went back and forth in the second half of action with neither team able to find the back of the goal until late into the half as Masar took advantage on the offensive end to score the game-winner.
“It was a long ball that we went up after and got caught too high on,” said Coach Smith. “We had late cover and they were able to put it in. It’s too bad because our center backs played a great game. Our entire backline (Courtney Cobbs, Kimmy Gillespie, Blakely Mattern, Erin Geldhof, Shannon Bigbie) really played well despite the loss. They had to defend against a lot of long balls being served and one just got behind us.”
Carolina attempted to rally in the final five minutes of action with freshman forward Samantha Diaz-Matosas tallying a shot that went high of the goal with 14 seconds remaining.
Friday evening’s match was the first meeting between the two schools and the first time USC has faced an opponent from the Big Ten Conference. The loss snaps a two-game season opener win streak for Carolina.
Live gametracker stats for Sunday’s match against Iowa will be available at uscsports.com. Following this Sunday’s match, the Gamecocks will return to the Palmetto State for its home opener on Thursday, Aug. 31 at 7 pm vs. Francis Marion at Stone Stadium.
