Box Score
MIAMI (Sept. 27, 2013) – The FIU women's soccer team (2-7-0) dropped a tough game to the Charlotte 49ers (6-3-0) on Friday night at the FIU Soccer Stadium.
“Charlotte is a good team,” said Head Coach
Thomas Chestnutt. “We had a little bit of anxiety in the first half, but we turned it around in the second half.”
The Panthers controlled the pace of the game much throughout the first half. Senior
Kim Lopez facilitated the ball on a couple of drives, feeding
Madlen Weinhardt off a pass, who saw her shot get tipped just above the net from Charlotte's Annika McHenry in the 35th minute. McHenry came into the game in the ninth minute after a collision between Charlotte's starting goalkeeper Alex Kubrick and redshirt freshman
Shelby Bowden knocked Kubrick out of the game.
Charlotte capitalized off a counter in the 29th minute, which resulted in Maddie Kiebel's first goal of the season. Off a pass from Kaitlin Walker, Kiebel buried the ball into the far left corner from a shot 12 yards out for the 1-0 Charlotte lead.
The 49ers would add to its lead in the 54th minute when Kerri Bonner took advantage of traffic in front of the net and put the ball into the far post.
The Panthers were on the attack for the bulk of the second half and dominated the time of possession but were unable to be rewarded for their effort.
FIU threatened in the 63rd minute when junior
Caroline Hernandez blasted the ball just wide left of the net. Junior
Ashleigh Shim then saw the same result 45 seconds later when she too missed just wide. Senior
Nicole DiPerna had a shot blocked in the 72nd minute from the center of the box. Bowden was rewarded with a free kick just outside of the box a minute later, which was blocked by a wall of green jerseys. Two additional shots from junior
Marie Egan and Shim missed high and wide in the 84th and 85th minutes, respectively.
“We stepped our game up in the second half,” said junior
Johanna Volz. “We had the ball in their zone for the majority of the half, and we saw a lot of chances that just didn't go in.”
FIU returns to action on Sunday at 1 p.m., when the Panthers will continue Conference USA play by hosting Old Dominion.
Fans are encouraged to follow the Panthers on Twitter (@FIUWomensSoccer) and become a fan on Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUWSoccer) for all the latest FIU women's soccer news. Follow all of FIU's 18 athletic teams on Google+ (FIU Athletics), Twitter (@FIUAthletics), Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUSports), YouTube (FIUPanthers), and Instagram (FIUathletics).
#####
About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including U.S. Century Bank Arena and Alfonso Field at FIU Stadium.
About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. Its colleges and schools offer more than 180 bachelor¹s, master¹s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida¹s anchor institutions, FIU is Worlds Ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. FIU has awarded 200,000 degrees and enrolls 50,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu
