Sept. 26, 2011

Box Score

GREENSBORO, N.C. - The Samford University soccer team tallied its biggest triumph of the young 2011 season Monday as the Bulldogs played to a 1-0 victory against the defending champion UNCG Spartans in a Southern Conference showdown held at the UNCG Soccer Stadium (3,540).

"This was a great win for our team and I'm extremely proud of our players," said Samford head coach Todd Yelton. "I thought we gave great effort and it feels fantastic to be able to get the win. We played 110 minutes on Saturday night, and I know that our players were drained, but they never gave up and competed hard until the final whistle."

Samford's Michelle Moll scored the game-winning goal in the 70th minute of play. Moll, the Bulldogs' sophomore All-SoCon Preseason performer, notched her first goal of the 2011 campaign following a crossing pass from freshman Brittany Hoffman.

On the decisive score, Moll gathered Hoffman's cross from the right wing and curled a shot neatly into the bottom left corner of the net. The assist was Hoffman's second of the season.

"Even before Michelle's goal, we missed out on a couple of good scoring chances, so as a coach I was starting to get a little nervous," Yelton said. "Then Brittany did a great job of sending in the cross and Michelle scored about as good of a goal as possible. It was an outstanding goal and it was great to see the ball hit the back of the net."

Samford's goalkeeper Alyssa Whitehead registered her second shutout of the year and finished with three key saves in the victory. The Bulldogs' 6-foot-3 senior from Hattiesburg, Miss., improved her goals-against average to 1.41 on the season and increased her save total to 53.

With Monday's win, Samford (3-5-1, 1-0-1 SoCon) remained undefeated in conference play and evened its all-time series record against UNCG (2-6-1, 1-1 SoCon) to 2-2-1. Both of the Bulldogs' victories in the rivalry have occurred in Greensboro.

"This is a very tough place to play and it is extremely gratifying to get a big win here," said Yelton. "UNCG is a really talented team and they are always one of the best teams in the conference. This was a great win for our team and I hope that it will help us build some confidence and that we can use it as a catalyst for the remainder of the season."

On Saturday, Samford opened SoCon play with a 1-1 draw at Elon. UNCG also opened its conference season Saturday and streaked to a lopsided 6-1 victory at home against Chattanooga.

The Bulldogs and Spartans were the top two teams in the 2011 SoCon preseason poll. UNCG, who won the regular-season title last year, was voted as the preseason favorite, while Samford was predicted to finish second in the standings. In the 2010 SoCon Tournament championship match, the Spartans held on for a 1-0 victory over the Bulldogs.

"We're excited about winning today, but we know that the conference championship wasn't decided just because of this result," Yelton said. "It's going to be a long season and we still have a lot of tough matches to play. I truly believe that we play in one of the best conferences in the nation and it's going to be a battle to win the regular-season title."

Monday's early-season matchup was originally scheduled to be played Sunday. The contest was moved back to Monday because of all the extreme rain and flooding in central North Carolina.

Samford outshot UNCG, 8-5, and won the corner kick battle by a count of 4-1. The Bulldogs also tallied five shots on goal as compared to three from the Spartans.

Moll paced Samford with four shot attempts, two shots on goal and her first goal of the 2011 campaign. Senior Sarah Wilkinson added a pair of shot attempts, both of which were on goal. Sophomore Trine Taule and true freshman Amanda Abbott also rattled off shot attempts Monday.

The Samford University soccer team will next be in action Friday at 7 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs return home to Birmingham, Ala., to play host to the College of Charleston Cougars in a key SoCon contest to be held at the Samford Track and Soccer Stadium.