ECU Drops Exhibition To VCU 3-2

GREENVILLE, N.C. – In the first exhibition of the 2018 season, the ECU women's soccer team took a pair of leads, but could not hold on as VCU won 3-2 at Johnson Stadium on Tuesday evening.

"For us, we picked a challenging team to start off to really see what we have," said head coach Jason Hamilton. "We have 16 new players and then even for the 13 returners, we had them playing in different positions in the spring. So we didn't get to see what it was like in a full game, getting players subbed in different pairs so that's what this was for us. We got to see what we have with players in different positions, see what they can do at this level and go forward."

It did not take long for ECU to take the lead. Just over 11 minutes into the first period, the Pirates earned a free kick from the right wing. The service into the box took a deflection and Carsen Parker was the first to react to it. Parker took a one-time shot, tucking the ball into the bottom right corner to open the scoring.

The Rams answered at the 28 minute mark. Alyssa Tallent found herself in space 25 yards from the ECU goal. Tallent used that space to let fly a low shot that found the bottom left corner of the goal.

The score remained tied at 1-1 through halftime and for more than 15 minutes in the second half. Once again ECU took the lead and like the first goal, the Pirates were able to capitalize on a set piece. Morgan Dewey stepped up to take the corner and hit her cross to the near post. Courtney Cash beat both her defender and the VCU goalkeeper to the cross and directed her header between the keeper and the post to regain the lead.

"We're going to go out every single game and we need to win the set piece battle," added Hamilton. "That's going to be huge for us. That's the difference between winning and losing games. I thought we did a great job offensively on set pieces. If we can score goals on set pieces and stop teams from scoring on them, we can be successful."

Unfortunately, the Pirates saw VCU score a pair of goals within ten minutes to claim the victory. The Rams tied the score in the 71st minute when Susanna Friedrichs' pass sprung Kimberly Ito and Ito scored. VCU added the game-winning goal in the 80th minute when Amanda Tredway cut inside from the left wing and curled her shot into the far post.

"It gives us a lot of things to look at and work on," Hamilton said. "I think we need to be better defensively as individuals. I think we need to have a better work rate, they beat us to a lot of balls. It's just an urgency thing when we play. We're going to look at video and show it to the team and then we can move forward and learn from this."

ECU will have one more exhibition match before the regular season begins. The Pirates will host Gardner-Webb on Aug. 11 at 7:00 p.m.

Players Mentioned

Courtney Cash

Morgan Dewey

Carsen Parker

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