Sept. 24, 2010

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford University soccer team suffered its first home loss in over three years Friday as the Bulldogs dropped a 1-0 decision to the Elon Phoenix in the Southern Conference opener for both teams held at Bulldog Field. The defeat was Samford's first at home since a 3-0 setback against Auburn on Sept. 21, 2007.

Friday's loss snapped Samford's 28-match home undefeated streak which was the fourth-longest in the nation. The Bulldogs compiled a 22-0-6 record at Bulldog Field during the stretch.

"I don't fault our players' effort tonight," said Samford head coach Todd Yelton. "I thought they all gave it a pretty good effort. In the first half, Elon made it very hard for us to play by the way they played against us. I thought that (head coach) Chris (Neal) did a really good job with his team, because they slowed the pace of the game and everything took time to get started. I think that took a lot of the emotion out of the match."

Samford (4-4-1, 0-1-0 SoCon) suffered its second straight loss and dropped to 4-1-1 at home this season. In their previous outing, the Bulldogs had their four-match winning streak snapped in a 2-0 loss at No. 25-ranked Auburn.

At home this season, Samford played to a 2-2 draw with Mercer on Aug. 27, and then rattled off consecutive wins against Southern Miss 4-0, UAB 1-0, Kennesaw State 2-0 and Tennessee Tech 2-0.

Elon (6-2-1, 1-0-0 SoCon) earned its first win in school history versus Samford on Friday. Prior to the match, the Bulldogs held a 2-0 record in the all-time series between the teams.

The Phoenix tallied its game-winning goal in the 79th minute of play. Elon's Alanna Winsper scored the decisive goal in a massive scrum in front of the net. On the score, the Phoenix's Andrea Keller rifled a shot attempt in front of the goal that was deflected by a pair of Samford defenders and ricocheted directly to Winsper.

Winsper, Elon's junior from Richmond, Va., gathered the bounding ball and fired a shot into the far left corner of the net. The goal was Winsper's second of the season and the assist was Keller's first of the 2010 campaign.

The Phoenix's goalkeeper Kristen Haney registered her third shutout of the season and made a match-high five saves in the victory.

In Friday's hard-fought loss, Samford recorded a number of close chances for goals that were just barely missed. The Bulldogs had a couple of shot attempts carom off the crossbar and Kaley Blanton also had a possible match-tying header go barely over the crossbar.

"We had a lot of good opportunities to score tonight," Yelton said. "We hit the crossbar two or three times and we only gave up one corner kick all night. We knew that Elon is very dangerous on corners and we didn't handle it very well and thus we ended up getting beat on it."

Samford finished the match with 11 shot attempts, all of which were registered in the second half of play. Elon was outnumbered 4-1 in corner kicks, but the game-winning goal was a result of its lone corner kick.

"I thought we did much better in the second half, but the slow pace of play was something we've never had to deal with before," said Yelton. "We were good in the second half and we were certainly good enough to win the match, but soccer's a cruel game. Sometimes you play well, but you still feel like you deserve more out of it. Now, we just need to rest up, stay focused and work towards getting a win on Sunday."

The Samford University soccer team will next be in action Sunday at 2 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs welcome the UNC Greensboro Spartans to Bulldog Field for a key early-season SoCon showdown.