College of Charleston
Clemson
Cougars Drop Season Opener To Clemson
8/23/2015 11:16:00 PM | Women's Soccer
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. – The College of Charleston women's soccer team opened their 2015 season with a 2-0 loss to the Clemson Tigers in the Charleston Nike Classic finale on Sunday afternoon at Patriots Point.
“Clemson is a very good team and they're ranked top 25 in the country for a reason. They have a lot of great players who think and feel their way through the game. We've got some great senior leadership but also a lot of young players who were playing their first collegiate game at the D1 level. It was certainly some trial by fire throwing the young players against such a talented team but I am very proud of the way the girls played today. We will take a lot of things we and use them as learning points for this week's training to get ready for tough road trip next week.” – Head Coach Christian Michner on today's match
The Tigers dominated time of possession by consistently keeping the ball on the Cougars side of the field. Clemson held a 17-4 advantage in shots over The College, picking up nine in the first half and eight in the second. The Tigers came into today's game ranked 22nd in the NSCAA preseason poll.
Freshmen forward Jessica Schifer (Aiken, S.C.) led the way for the Cougars on offense with two shots on the day. Clemson tallied five shots on goal while CofC failed to connect with any clean looks.
“They deserved the three points they got today because they took advantage of some crucial scoring chances like championship teams do. One thing I was very impressed with was our fight. We never quit. Clemson controlled the ball more but my girls played a real tough game today and will certainly learn a lot from playing such a quality opponent this early in the season.” – Head Coach Michner on the Cougars fight today
Clemson took the lead in the 33rd minute on a breakaway goal down the middle of the field by Patrice DiPasquale, which was set up on a beautiful pass around the CofC defender by Jeni Erickson.
The Tigers struck again early in the second half after a rebound in CofC's goal box landed right at the feet of Lauren Harkes. Harkes put the goal away in the right side of the net to give Clemson a 2-0 lead and would never look back.
Charleston Nike Challenge All-Tournament Team
The inaugural Charleston Nike Challenge brought an extremely talented field to Patriots Point that included the College of Charleston, the Texas Longhorns from the Big 12 and Miami & Clemson from the ACC. The 2015 all-tournament team represents four players from each winning team and two from the remaining teams:
Clemson Tigers: Jeni Erickson, Lauren Harkes, Emily Byorth, and Patrice DiPasquale
Texas Longhorns: Abby Smith, Lindsey Meyer, Mikayla Flores, Julia Dyche
College of Charleston: Jessica Schifer, Rio Speller-Drews
Miami Hurricanes: Natalie Moik, Grace Rapp
The Cougars will hit the road next weekend trip that includes matchups with VCU on Friday, Aug. 28 at 5:00 p.m. and Radford on Sunday, Aug. 30 at 1:00 p.m.
-www.CofCSports.com-
