Aug. 21, 2004

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford University soccer team was defeated in its first competition of the 2004 fall season on Saturday as the Bulldogs fell in a preseason exhibition contest against the Vanderbilt Commodores, 4-1, at Bulldog Field.

"Vanderbilt is a really good team and they did a good job of showing our weaknesses today," said Samford head coach Todd Yelton. "They did a great job against us and they have a very organized team and a great goalkeeper. We just need to rebound from this and get prepared for the regular season next week."

Samford (0-1 exhibition) fell behind early in Saturday's match as Vanderbilt (1-0-1 exhibition) scored two goals in the first 26 minutes of play. The Commodores' Kim Perkins notched the first score of the contest at 12:38, while senior midfielder Molly Wilson tacked on the second goal at 25:36.

"We will definitely be practicing hard this week on getting better in the air and at defending corner kicks," said Yelton. "We need to do a better job of defending against corners and I think that there is no way that we should have allowed four goals to be scored, because Emily Morris (goalkeeper) played well and deserved better."

In the second half of play, the teams fought to nearly 30 minutes of scoreless soccer before Vanderbilt's Ashley Duffy snaked a shot into the right-hand corner of the net to give the Commodores a 3-0 advantage. Duffy, a sophomore from Ashburn, Va., outran a pair of Bulldog defenders on a breakaway and controlled a diving kick past a diving Morris.

Less than three minutes later, Samford's Kim Matthews gathered a pass from senior Heidi Kearns and one-timed a perfectly-placed shot into the bottom right-hand corner of the net. With the goal, Matthews' first of the exhibition season, the Bulldogs' sophomore from Colleyville, Texas, cut Vanderbilt's deficit to 3-1.

Samford's comeback hopes proved to be short-lived as the Commodores' Sarah Dennis picked up a goal exactly one minute later at 87:58 to give Vanderbilt its decisive 4-1 advantage.

"This was a pretty good reality check for us," said Yelton. "We have a lot of freshmen on this team and they played like freshmen out there today. That is expected, but our upperclassmen also made some freshman mistakes and we need to limit those. I did think that Sharon Young played well and we'll just have to get better before next week."

The Samford University soccer team will next be in action on Friday, Aug. 27, as the Bulldogs begin their regular-season competition against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles on the road in Hattiesburg, Miss., at 4 p.m.

Vanderbilt (1-0-1) def. Samford (0-1-0), 4-1
VU 2 2 - 4
SAM 0 1 - 1

Scoring: SAM, Kim Matthews (1) 86:58 (assist Heidi Kearns); VU, Kim Perkins (1) 12:38 (assist Lauren Mitchell), Molly Wilson (1) 25:36 (assist Kelci Hegg), Ashley Duffy (1) 84:10 (unassisted), Sarah Dennis (1) 87:58 (unassisted).

Saves: SAM, Emily Morris 3; VU, Tyler Griffin 2,

Yellow Card: VU, Amy Baumann (55:37).