Davidson’s Great Season Comes to an End, Drops First Round Contest at No. 8 South Carolina, 4-0

Friday, November 13

Columbia, SC

7:00 p.m.

Davidson College

No. 8 South Carolina (#2 Seed)

Senior Kyri Bye-Nagel. (All photos courtesy of Tim Cowie)

Photo by: Tim Cowie - DavidsonPhotos.com

Davidson’s Great Season Comes to an End, Drops First Round Contest at No. 8 South Carolina, 4-0

11/13/2009 10:12:27 PM | Women's Soccer

Gavin McFarlin - Assistant SID

Box Score

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A three-goal attack in a four-minute stretch at the beginning of the second half helped second-seeded South Carolina hold off a resilient Davidson Wildcat team as the Gamecocks earned a 4-0 win in the first round of the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament on Friday evening at Stone Stadium in front of a record-crowd of 3,813.

The Gamecocks (18-3-2) advance to play Rutgers, which defeated Duke, 2-0, in the first game of the first round.

The Wildcats, who were making their first appearance in the tournament after capturing the program's fourth Southern Conference Tournament Title last weekend (Nov. 6-8), saw their season come to an end as they closed at 12-10-1. They also saw their eight-game unbeaten streak snapped.

“I'm so thrilled and proud of the team tonight and this whole season,” said head coach Greg Ashton. “It's a privilege to be here and representing Davidson College for the first time in program history, and I couldn't be more proud of the team.”

Davidson was down just 1-0 after playing a solid first half, but USC's team speed helped it take control of the game with three quick strikes in a four-minute stretch. All-SEC First Team pick Kayla Grimsley started the flurry with her 12th score of the season at the 51:23 mark and then ended it with a rebound goal with 55:44 on the clock. In between, Sam Diaz-Matosas netted her fourth of the season and the 'Cats quickly found themselves down 4-0.

The Wildcats never stopped, continuing to pressure the Gamecocks' defense, but just never was able to get a clean look on goal. They finished with three total shots, getting two of them in the second half. They also had four corner kicks.

“USC is a very good team and I think we played fantastic the first 10 minutes of the contest, putting them back on their heels a bit,” said Ashton. “We wanted to play straight up and compete with them, and I think we did a solid job of that most of the evening.”

Davidson came out with all the momentum and did not look like a team making their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament, playing aggressively and it nearly paid off. The 'Cats earned two corner kicks in the first five minutes of action, but were not able to put a shot on frame as South Carolina cleared each attempt.

“Those two set plays early were nice,” said Ashton. “We work on all them all season and it would have been great to get a score early, but South Carolina was able to stop those plays and start to counter our attack.”

“We came out strong and I think we did frustrate them a bit early, but they were able to counter very quickly,” said senior co-captain Courtney Hart (Ashland, Mass).

South Carolina then started to take control of the possession a bit, but like last weekend at the Southern Conference Tournament, the defense and goalkeeper Jessie Baxa (Bloomfield were nearly air tight as they held off numerous Gamecock shot attempts on goal. The defense played 227 total minutes of shutout ball over the three games, including the first 28 minutes tonight before USC put a goal in during the 29th minute.

The frontline of South Carolina worked the ball down the field with some quick passes. From there Brooke Jacobs struck a ball from 35 yards out that found the back of the net for a 1-0 Gamecock advantage.

USC ended the half with 11 shots and Baxa was there to stop five of them, including a couple of great diving saves. Baxa finished with seven saves, while senior Loring Ward (Charleston, S.C.) closed out her final career game playing the last six minutes of the contest.

“It was an unbelievable season for us,” said senior Kyri Bye-Nagel (Hanau, Germany). “We seniors had never been to the SoCon finals, and to earn that chance and then win it, was awesome. As a team we knew we always could do it, we just needed a chance to put it all together, which we did this year. Then, to make the program's first NCAA Tournament, it's a great accomplishment and we have definitely set the foundations for this program.”

The game marked the final contest for the Wildcats' eight seniors led by Hart, Bye-Nagel and Ward. Joining that trio was Sophie Funderburk (Wilmington, N.C.), Katharine Laco (Bethesda, Md.), Blakely Low (San Antonio, Texas), Suzanne Sittko (Greenwood Village, Colo.) and Lauren Conner (Mechanicsburg, Pa.).

Scoring Summary
29:02   USC   Brooke Jacobs (unassisted)
51:23   USC   Kayla Grimsley (Sam Diaz-Matosas)
54:24   USC   Sam Diaz-Matosas (unassisted)
55:44   USC   Kayla Grimsley (Brooke Jacobs)