By: by Matthew Farhadi
Box Score
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Kennesaw State women’s soccer team fell on the first day of the Samford Soccer Tournament to host school Samford, 2-0, on Friday evening at Bulldog Field.
The win improves the Bulldogs to 3-2-1 for the season, while the loss drops the Owls to 2-3-1 on the year.
Staci Pugh made five saves, while Katie Scott led the team with two shots in a losing effort.
Samford had the first quality scoring chance of the match in the 19th minute as Sarah Wilkinson took a shot that slid underneath Kennesaw State goalkeeper Pugh, but freshman Tasia Williams came up big for the Owls making a team save to keep the game scoreless.
The Bulldogs opened the scoring in the 38th minute of play as Katie Proud received a pass on the back post side and one-touched it in to give Samford a 1-0 lead.
In the second half, Samford doubled its lead in the 60th minute of the match on a goal by Paige Lanter.
The Owls were outshot 13-4 in the match, but held a 5-4 edge in corner kicks.
Head Coach Rob King was happy with the girls’ effort tonight, and knows that it is a learning process.
“We have put a new system in place so naturally when you do that mistakes will happen, and tonight we didn’t make many but the few we did make turned into goals,” Coach King said. “One of the things I want us to improve on is our physical play moving forward, and we have a chance on Sunday to do just that as we head into conference play next weekend.”
Kennesaw State will conclude the Samford Soccer Tournament on Sunday as they will take on in-state rival Georgia Southern at 12:30 p.m. eastern time.
