ORANGEBURG, S.C. – A mid-first-half strike from sophomore Harlan Lyons and an 87^th-minute longshot by Emma Brown carried the Presbyterian College women's soccer team to their first victory of 2025 as they downed South Carolina State on Sunday 2-1.

With shots hard to come by for both clubs in PC's only road encounter in the entire month of August, the Blue Hose overlapped their in-state opponent to denote head coach Matt Smith's 35^th overall win against a school from the state of South Carolina.

Lyons and Brown both put in their first goals at the college level in Sunday's triumph, the second time in as many seasons that Presby has had two players score for the first time in the same contest.

Now in the win column after tying The Citadel three nights earlier, the Scotsmen will enjoy the luxury of five consecutive home matches in the near future. That sequence will start this Thursday when Mercer visits Martin Stadium at 7:00.


 
FINAL SCORE: Presbyterian, 2 – South Carolina State, 1
RECORDS: Presbyterian (1-0-1) – South Carolina State (0-1)
LOCATION: Orangeburg, S.C.





 
DOUBLE TROUBLE
 
- In a 2024 regular season meeting with eventual Big South champion USC Upstate, the freshman duo of Allie Williams and Sydney Lassiter both found their first career goals within 16 minutes of each other.

- Eleven months later, Brown and Lyons repeated that feat by each hitting their first Blue Hose goals on the same night to help the crew rebound from a very quick 1-0 deficit.

- Therefore, a total of 12 different players have scored at least once in Smith's brief tenure as the program's head coach.


 
HOW IT HAPPENED
 
- Both of Presbyterian's connections in match number two were from a sizable distance away from the box. Brown's bomb was dropped with three minutes and 16 seconds to go, turning a probable draw into a surefire PC win.

- S.C. State (competing in their first match of the new season) stunned the Blue Hose less than four minutes in, the only goal allowed by freshman keeper Febe Dombrecht in two full-length matches.

- Just eight shots were attempted between the two sides over the entire game, but Lyons and Brown made the most of the team's few chances by catching the Bulldogs sleeping.

- Five other competitors played at least 80 minutes beyond Dombrecht (who saved 10 shots in her college debut versus The Citadel), as Smith's defense held S.C. State to only three attempts all night long.

- PC now has five different players on their current roster who have scored at least one game-winner in their college career following Brown's heroics. The others are Sloan Spees, Lindsey Malyszek, Emilia Lieber, and Ella Williams.


 
UP NEXT
 
- Mercer comes to PC's turf in four days for a key non-conference meeting that will feature two groups that won a combined 18 matches last year.

- Scoring in the 81^st minute to help them beat the Blue Hose last season in Macon by a 1-0 count, the Bears would later be on the wrong end of an overtime upset against Chattanooga in the 2024 SoCon Tournament quarterfinals.

- Mercer started off this fresh season by going up against 22^nd-ranked Oklahoma State, losing to the Cowboys 2-0.