College of Charleston
Mercer (Exhibition)
Women's Soccer Draws with Mercer in Opening Exhibition
8/13/2011 8:28:00 PM | Women's Soccer
MACON, Ga. - The College of Charleston women's soccer team battled Mercer to a 2-2 draw in the team's sole exhibition contest of the 2011 season on Saturday afternoon at Bear Field.
Hannah Gmerek (Piedmont, S.C.) and Sarah Cardamone (Downingtown, Pa.) did the scoring for the Cougars. CofC was outshot, 17-12, but many of the Bears' shot attempts came on long, non-threatening balls into the box which were well-handled by the Cougars' keepers.
Lindsay Frey (Cincinnati, Ohio) picked up an assist on the game's first goal as she sent a deep ball into the box onto the boot of Gmerek who made a long run from her left-back midfield position. Gmerek possessed the ball one-on-one and beat the keeper to the far post to put CofC up, 1-0.
"I got a great ball in the box from Lindsey Frey that couldn't have been any better," said Gmerek. "I maintained my composure and put the ball in the back of the net, but I have nothing to thank except for my teammates getting me in that position."
The goal came in the 30th minute and the Cougars carried the lead into the halftime break.
Mercer equalized the match in the early minutes of the second half with a 48th-minute goal from sophomore forward Casey Barrett assisted by Washida Blackman.
The Cougars recaptured the lead in the 49th minute with Cardamone's electrifying goal. Hope Atkinson (Rumson, N.J.) possessed the ball around the backline and flicked the ball back towards Cardamone around the six-yard line. With her back to goal, Cardamone flipped back and struck the ball in bicycle-kick fashion with her right foot into the back of the net.
Mercer equalized again, however, with a free-kick goal by Emerald Phillips in the 77th minute.
Lightning struck in the 84th minute and the game was called with roughly six minutes remaining due to the weather conditions.
"This was a really good game for two well-matched teams," said head coach Christian Michner. "We showed a lot of quality and realized where we still have room to improve moving towards our season opener. We gave up some goals that we can learn from and hopefully reduce as the year goes on. We went ahead twice and need to focus on keeping those leads safe as we work to win the Southern Conference."
"I think we played very well together once we found our rhythm and played well as a team in our first game together," said Gmerek. "Now we have to refocus on playing Charleston Southern. We just need to work on maintaining that rhythm and working together as a team. We're working hard to win the conference but are taking everything one game at a time."
The Cougars open the regular season at home on Friday, Aug. 19 against Charleston Southern at 7 p.m. at Patriots Point.
