CLINTON, S.C. – Just 48 hours after beginning the 2022 campaign with a quick road trip to Furman, the Presbyterian College women's soccer team flipped sides to serve as the hosting party – a designation they will retain for five of the next six outings – on Sunday afternoon, battling the Davidson Wildcats under a mostly cloudy sky in front of an energetic audience to close the weekend.
Both factions exploded into an offensive groove once the first period came to a halt, resulting in a three-goal sequence all within 20 minutes of each other. Unfortunately for the Blue Hose, the final two of those strikes came from the visitors, leading to a 2-1 triumph for Davidson when the dust settled.
FINAL SCORE: Davidson 2 – Presbyterian 1
RECORDS: Presbyterian (0-2), Davidson (1-0-1)
LOCATION: Martin Stadium
HOW IT HAPPENED:
Aiming for a dose of revenge after a one-score deficit against the Wildcats the previous year, Presbyterian primarily relied on their defensive unit to handle an early Davidson attack, leading to the 0-0 stalemate at the end of the first. Unrelenting on all six shots from the visitors leading into the break, it only took the Blue Hose one minute and 59 seconds after coming out of the locker room to draw first blood.
Fifth-year forward
Kori Lawrence, galloping ahead of the back line on a perfectly-placed ball by
Sydni Dachs, netted PC its first successful shot of the infant season at the 47-minute mark, the 12
th goal scored by Lawrence over her stint in Clinton to surpass the 30-point tally individually.
Unfortunately for head coach
Brian Purcell's club, Davidson swiftly answered with a strike of their own only six minutes later off the boot of Charlotte Snead. Still with plenty of time remaining until the final horn, the Blue Hose fell into a progression of close calls without ever hitting paydirt again, while the Wildcats tallied the eventual game-decider in the 68
th minute.
Katy Talotta assisted Lilly Lovell on the game's third score, putting the pressure on PC in an effort to tie things up once more. The Blue Hose came inches away on multiple occasions to doing so, most notably on a header from
Sloan Spees that was narrowly slapped away by Davidson keeper Mary Grace Bunch in the 62
nd minute. Another near-goal from the blue and white – this one off
Ella Williams' foot with 10 minutes to go – sailed just too high to accomplish the would-be 2-2 tie.
Spees once again paced PC in the shots department with three of the team's nine on a day where 19 Blue Hose members roamed the field. Beside Lawrence's goal – putting the graduate student just two away from the third most all-time throughout the school's Division I era – Presbyterian managed two other shot-on-goal tries from
Caitlin Murphy and
Hannah Austin throughout the close loss.
COACH PURCELL'S THOUGHTS:
"I was very proud of our players' effort this afternoon. I think that at times we looked very good, especially some moments in the second half. Moving forward, I believe we need to work on being more efficient near both goals to allow some balanced opportunities for scoring threats and simultaneously to prevent our opponents from scoring".
UP NEXT:
Retaining homefield advantage for the second straight outing, the Blue Hose will take on the ETSU Buccaneers in Clinton at the midway portion of the week in the fourth all-time meeting between the two programs. First touch from Martin Stadium is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, weather cooperating.
ETSU was blanked by Liberty on Sunday in a 4-0 decision at Lynchburg, Va., which occurred after a season-opening 2-2 tie with Gardner-Webb. Wednesday's bout with the Buccaneers will be streamed live via ESPN+.
