The Lady Cavaliers finished exhibition play earlier this week and traveled to Brevard College (NCAA Div II) for their season opener yesterday. The Tornadoes proved to be just a little too much for the Cavaliers who eventually lost the match, 1-0. It was Allie Hovis for Brevard that put the one goal past the Cavalier defense to break the scoreless tie game. Despite the goal allowed, freshman goalkeeper Caroline Mellard again looked good in front of the net, racking up seven saves in the game.

Coach Maples says, "Obviously we wanted to win, but all in all we played ok. The first half we started out slow but then found some rhythm and were able to build the attack. We got two good looks at goal on 1v1's as Emily Myers and Rebecca Worley got in behind the defense. Brittany Zachrich put the ball right where it needed to go. From there we just held the ball too long when the shot should have come sooner, before the defense closed us down and the opportunity was contested.
In the second half, we found no rhythm to speak of as we once again became our own worst enemy. The game plan was to play wide, where Brevard had no wings in the middle field. We did that fine, but then we wouldn't look to penetrate -- hence only one shot in the second half, and that came in the final five minutes. We have to look to attack the areas behind the defense more, so we put them under pressure from the attack. No penetration only puts pressure on our defense and they played well for 89 minutes. Brevard statistically had 21 shots, but only two were dangerous and one of them counted. I liked our intensity and work rate, but the urgency to attack didn't come until the final 10 minutes. That must change. So we go fix that tomorrow and face King College on Saturday."  

The Lady Cavaliers (0-1-0)  will travel to King College tomorrow for a 1:00 match.