JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville University women's soccer team hosted No.8 South Carolina at Southern Oak Stadium tonight in a showdown that had the Dolphins looking to secure their first victory of the 2019 season. Despite a valiant effort, the Dolphins (0-2) fell tonight to South Carolina in a 6-0 final.
"I'm really proud of our team for the last 20 minutes of that match. Unfortunately it's a 90 minute soccer game so for us, it's taking what we are able to do in the last 20 in terms of battling, putting tackles in and taking that moving forward into the season. When we take that mentality forward with us we will be successful and learn something from this game," commented head coach
Laura Busby following the game.
Heavy defense was a key component as sophomore goalie
Michelle Jerantowski made 11 saves on the night for the Dolphins.
South Carolina (3-0) opened up the scoring in the first half with four unanswered goals.The Gamecocks scored three goals in 2:17 to take an early 3-0 lead. Elexa Bahr (17:22) got the visitors on the board first with a pass from Ryan Gareis. Less than a minute and a half later, Samantha Chang single handedly put up the second goal at 18:47. Gareis then netted her own goal with assists from Chang and Bahr to complete the run. Sutton Jones closed out scoring in the half at 43:42 with an assist from Fraces Ann Matise.
All four of Jacksonville's shots came in the second half as junior defender
Kylie McCue, freshman forward
Olivia Abdallah, freshman midfielder
Lola Negrete, and junior midfielder
Emma Vasquez got a shot on goal for the hosts.
Camryn Dixon opened up scoring early in the second half in the 62
nd minute with the help of Luciana Zullo for an assist. The final goal of the night came unassisted at 84:17 from Samantha Meredith.
"We've got to focus on our recovery it's going to be key for the next 5 days but we are looking forward to that match against FIU and taking what we learned from this game were simply going to be motivated going into that one," added Busby.
The Dolphins head on the road starting with a visit to FIU on Friday, August 30 at 2 p.m. and will cap off the weekend at Miami on Sunday, September 1 at 6 p.m.
