GREENSBORO, N.C. – On a night when the UNC Greensboro (UNCG) women's soccer team sported bright pink socks to kick off breast cancer awareness month, the Spartans fended off Virginia Military Institute (VMI) at home Friday night to earn their first Southern Conference (SoCon) win of the season, 2-1.
From senior Ashley Avelino
"I thought our team did great tonight with possessing the ball and creating opportunities to score. Santora placed a beautiful ball from a free kick and I was so excited to finish her set up with a goal."
On what it means to play during breast cancer awareness month
"My grandmother is a breast cancer survivor, so I was playing for her tonight. I was so thankful and blessed to have her at the game!"
Records
UNCG: 2-4-5, 1-1-1 SoCon
VMI: 2-10-0, 0-3-0 SoCon
How it Happened:
- The tension was high from the start of the game, as play went back and forth.
- UNCG countered in the 9th minute of play as senior Nicole Souply took space down the center of the field and fed sophomore Caroline Woods with a ball inside the 18-yard box. Woods slid the ball past a diving goalkeeper finding the back right post for a 1-0 lead at 8:07.
- Following a well-deserved celebration, the Spartans extended their lead to two, 2-0, at the 37th minute. On a set piece from about 28 yards out on the right side of the field, senior Ashley Avelino crossed the six-yard box and put away redshirt sophomore Gabi Santora's free kick.
- The Keydets outshot the Spartans, 7-5, in the first half, but UNCG came out firing in the second half outshooting VMI, 13-4.
By the Numbers
- Junior goalkeeper Abby Buchholz recorded seven saves in her first win of the season.
- This is the first SoCon win of the season for the Spartans.
- Woods and Avelino netted their first goals of the season.
- Santora and Souply tallied their first assists of the season.
- UNCG leads the series against VMI 8-1.
From the Coaches' Box/Michael Coll, Head Women's Soccer Coach
On the Game
"Great opening goal to start after eight minutes, and then we got a second one to go in with an insurmountable lead at halftime, I thought, against a very tough and competing VMI team. For most of the match, we played nice soccer, but we slowed down a little bit too much with our substitutions."
On the Pink Game
"We don't get many opportunities to play for something bigger than ourselves and so many people in the world are really touched by this awful disease, so those memories are sort of unspeakable. I wish we could continue to play for these people that have passed and survived from this awful disease. I hope we can do it more, and hopefully we can do it when we don't play pink because we have all lost wonderful people in our lives."
Looking Forward
"There are no easy games in this league. Mercer is going to be very tough, and Citadel had a nice win against Chattanooga. It's nice to be back home because what a beautiful place it is to play a soccer match. We know that any point that you get in this conference, we have to earn it big time, and certainly the two teams we play next Friday and Sunday will be gunning for us and they will be very tough to overcome."
Pink Game
The Spartans wore pink warm-up shirts prior to the game and pink socks during the game, kicking off Breast Cancer Awareness month.
If you are interested in donating to a local not-for-profit organization please visit
https://go.uncg.edu/donate_conehealth
Up Next:
The Spartans hosts Mercer University for the second game of their three-game homestand on Friday, October 8 with a start time of 7:00 p.m. at UNCG Soccer Stadium.
