JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman women's soccer team (2-1) scored a goal 20 seconds into the second half but fell to the Ohio Dominican Panthers (1-2) 2-1 Friday night at McCown Field for the Eagles' first loss of 2015.
Carson-Newman outshot its third-straight opponent as C-N notched 18 shots compared to the eight tallied by the Panthers.
"I thought we played fantastic. I thought we were the best footballing side of the night. In fairness, I thought Ohio Dominican looked very good on the counter-attack; I thought they were good in transition," coach Richard Moodie said. "For my girls, I thought we put the ball down well. Every time, we had two, three players getting on the ball. I think we have a lot of special players on this team. There is no reason for us to be down; we just have to learn how to win these big games."
Ohio Dominican opened the scoring in the ninth-minute with a goal off the foot of Ashley Blake. The sophomore took a throw-in from 40 yards out that cleared the entire Eagles' defensive back line and beat goalkeeper Jessica Fraiture (Hebron, Ky.) to her left for the 1-0 Panthers' advantage.
In the 27th-minute, Carson-Newman had a chance to equal the score before the half. Dominican was called for a handball in the box that set up a penalty kick for the Eagles. Junior Julianne Herrity (Donegal, Ireland) stepped to the spot for her first-career spot kick. After Herrity took a shot before the referee's whistle, Panthers' goalkeeper Kelsey Harris dove to her left and made the save to keep the score at 1-0 at the halftime break.
Freshman Varin Ness (Sogndal, Norway) tallied the Eagles' goal 20 seconds into the second half. A Dominican turnover right after the second half whistle found Ness's feet; the freshman dribbled from the midway line to the right side of the box, fired a shot and beat Harris to tie the contest at 1-1.
The Panthers tallied nine minutes later with the game-winning goal; a corner kick from the left flag was sent into the box and the ball bounced to the back post where junior Courtney Kozak retrieved the ball and poked it past Fraiture to make the score 2-1.
Carson-Newman outshot Dominican 12 to two in the second half of play. Herrity led the team with six shots. Ness and senior Nikki McWilliams (Saintfield, Northern Ireland) both put two shots on frame.
"We gave a goal in the first 10 minutes of the first half and a goal in the first 10 minutes of the second half and in football, you can't do that," Moodie said. "There was no reaction from us and we told that to the girls. When we scored, there was no 'Let's grind and work even harder' because when they got the second goal, we saw all the possession. I don't either team broke each other down tonight. I don't think there were any clear-cut chances. We are proud. We just have to find a way to win these bigger games."
The Eagles open South Atlantic Conference play on Wednesday evening against the Lenior-Rhyne Bears at 5 p.m. on McCown Field.
