The Appalachian State women’s soccer team’s pre-conference season ended Sunday with a 2-1 loss against Morehead State.
After challenging Morehead until 4 minutes and 6 seconds into overtime, the Eagles made the winning goal that ended the game.
App State’s preseason ended with a 3-4-0 record to the Eagles 1-7-1.
The Mountaineers pressed hard in the first half, scoring their first goal from sophomore Sam Childress at the 15:17 mark. App State held their 1-0 lead over Morehead State until the 82:34 mark, when the Eagle’s Elizabeth McSparin scored to force overtime.
“Morehead State is a good team,” said App State head coach Sarah Strickland. “I know their results don’t speak highly because they scheduled a very tough nonconference schedule.”
Morehead played an aggressive game against the Mountaineers with a total of 13 fouls to App State’s five.
The Eagles started out slowly, only taking two shots in the first period to the Mountaineers’ eight, but picked up their speed, taking seven shots in the second half and two in overtime.
Overall, the Eagles took 11 shots to the Mountaineers’ 13, but edged App State with two goals in the one-point victory.
The Mountaineers have no intentions of letting the last two games against Morehead and High Point reflect how their conference games will turn out.
“We had a tough game against High Point, and we really had a lot of time to grow and it didn’t show,” junior goalkeeper Amy Kolowsky said. “Hopefully we can just learn from it and grow from it this time. Conference is a whole new level and a whole new game. It just changes because every game means a lot more.”
Morehead’s comeback late in the game forced App State to push harder.
“We knew they were going to compete, and we knew they were going to fight to the end,” Childress said. “Conference is a whole new level of competition. It’s a whole new level of mental focus for us when we go into games.”
With two SoCon games against UNC Greensboro and Elon coming up, the Mountaineers prepare to work on their strategy and start conference play strong.
App State will face UNCG in their first SoCon game in Greensboro Thursday before returning home to play Elon on Sept. 29.
Story: Jess Lyons, Intern Sports Reporter