Conner Strikes For Game-Winner, ’Cats Down Rival Furman, 3-2, In SoCon Opener

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GREENVILLE, S.C. — Junior Lauren Conner (Mechanicsburg, Pa.) knocked in her fifth career game-winning goal in the early stages of the second period and the Wildcat defense pitched a shutout the rest of the way in leading the Davidson women's soccer team to a Southern Conference opening, 3-2, win over rival Furman on Thursday evening at Stone Soccer Stadium.

The win was Davidson's fifth in the past seven meetings against Furman, and its second straight on the road after taking a 1-0 decision last year during the regular season. The Wildcats open SoCon play1-0-0 for the seventh year in a row and improve their overall mark on the season to 3-2-3.

Furman, who was riding a three-game winning streak, fell to 6-3-1 overall (0-1-0 SoCon), and dropped its first home decision of the season.

Conner was joined in the scoring column by sophomore Amanda Flink (Richardson, Texas) and freshman Stephanie Gerow (Houston, Texas) in leading Davidson to a season-high in goals.

“The team fully deserved the result tonight,” said head coach Greg Ashton. “After establishing ourselves in the first 15 minutes, but then to fall behind on two occasions, we showed tremendous resilience to battle back against a strong Furman team away from home. The second half was a very tight affair, and I was very pleased and proud of the team in the way we scored and then our composure to finish out the game. This is just the beginning of what will be a very competitive SoCon slate of games.”

Coming out as aggressive as they started the game, junior Courtney Hart (Ashland, Mass.) set up the game-winner by sending a nicely placed long through ball to the center of the field to fellow junior Kyri Bye-Nagel (Hanau, Germany), who then drove the ball into the box and chipped a pass to the corner of the endline near the right goal post after colliding with the Paladin goalkeeper. Conner raced to the loose ball, outhustling a Furman defender, and slide a perfect shot to the far post for the game-winning goal.

Senior defender Chloe King (Wellesley, Mass.) and the rest of her Wildcat defensive teammates took care of the rest in shutting down the Paladin attack the rest of the way for the win.

Having some recent frustrating results, Davidson looked to create some more offensive opportunities with a more aggressive approach to start the game. The 'Cats controlled possession for the first 15 minutes, getting off two early shots on goal.

However, Furman was the first to strike when defender Ashley Creavalle drove down the field into Wildcat territory and then dished the ball off to a streaking Rachel Fry on the left corner of the 18-yard box. Fry gathered in the pass and fired off a shot to the near post for her third goal of the season with 15:21 on the clock.

The lead would be short lived thanks to the head of Gerow, who continued her early season scoring surge in the 26th minute with her third goal in the past five games to knot things up at 1-all. Davidson worked the ball down the near sideline when senior Melanee Smith (Bloomfield Township, Mich.) crossed the ball to the far side of the box. After two Wildcat shots were blocked, Gerow neatly redirected the ball into the right-hand corner side netting with her head.

After Alexa Jones of Furman gave her team a 2-1 lead with a flicked header to the far post off a corner kick at the 36:05 minute mark, Davidson came right back just over two minutes later with its second goal of the contest. Smith drilled a free kick just past midfield and sent a through ball into the far side of the 18-yard box where a streaking Amanda Flink met the ball with a powerful header into the left-hand corner for her first goal of the season, and fourth of her career, to knot things up at 2-2 heading into halftime.

The Wildcats got off eight of their 12 shots for the game in the first half, putting seven of them on goal.

In her first collegiate start, freshman Jessie Baxa (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) recorded the win between the pipes.

The Wildcats wrap up their two-game road trip on Sunday when they visit the Terriers of Wofford in Spartanburg, S.C. for a 2 p.m. contest. Davidson went 1-0-1 last year against Wofford, including a 2-1 quarterfinal win in the SoCon Tournament.

Scoring Summary
15:21   FUR   Rachel Fry (3) (Ashley Creavalle)
26:53   DAV Stephanie Gerow (3) (unassisted)
36:05   FUR   Alexa Jones (3) (Sara El-Shami)
38:58   DAV   Amanda Flink (1) (Melanee Smith)
51:01   DAV   Lauren Conner (2) (Kyri Bye-Nagel)

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