CLINTON, S.C. - The Presbyterian College women's soccer team (0-7-0) begins Big South Conference play this week with a Thursday night match at Liberty (6-3-0) before battling Longwood (6-3-0) on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Blue Hose will look to earn their first win of the 2012 campaign and improve on last season's two league victories.
Liberty enters Thursday with a 6-3-0 record and a two-match winning streak, downing George Washington (1-0) and South Carolina State (2-1) over the weekend. PC and the Flames have played one common opponent in USC Upstate, who the Flames knocked off by a 4-0 margin on August 26. Crystal Elmers, Lauren Stell and Jaime Bouffard each have two goals for the Flames while Karen Block has seen all of the team's goalkeeping action.
Longwood will host UNC Asheville on Thursday night before welcoming PC to Farmville, Va. The Lancers have compiled a 5-3-0 record with wins over ETSU (2-1), UMBC (1-0), Howard (2-1), Richmond (2-1) and Drexel (2-0). Seven different players have scored for the Lancers and Kyra Byron has started all but one match in goal.
PC will aim for its first win against Liberty with an 0-4-1 all-time record against the Flames before looking to improve on a 2-0-1 series edge over Longwood. Liberty took a 2-0 victory from Clinton on October 27 last season while PC and the Lancers will tangle for the first time since 2002, when the Blue Hose won at home by a 1-0 margin.
PC outshot the USC Upstate Spartans (20 to 17) and battled in Sunday's match to the second overtime, but a Spartan goal in the 104th minute sent the Blue Hose home with a narrow 1-0 loss. Jordan Broadway made eight saves in the effort.
The Blue Hose continue the Big South Conference Virginia portion of their schedule, returning home to host Radford on September 27 and VMI on September 29. The Blue Hose fell to Radford last year and took a tough tie at VMI two days later.
