BOX SCORE

The High Point University women's soccer team dropped its opening game of the 2009 season to Wake Forest University, 5-0, Friday evening in Winston-Salem, N.C.

The Demon Deacons carried the play through much of the match, outshooting the Panthers, 31-1. Senior Goalkeeper Marissa Abbott (Troy, N.Y./Tamarac) made eight saves in the losing effort.

"This is a learning experience for our players," said head coach Marty Beall. "Some key things we have to work on include being mentally tough, being a little more competitive and learning what it means to possess the ball and work off the ball. There were times we could have done better with our possession but we were a little off."

Senior captain Laura Eldridge (Knoxville, Tenn./West) logged the lone shot attempt for HPU with a 25-yard attempt which sailed just wide.

Wake Forest jumped on the board first in the ninth minute with a strike from 15 yards out by Kaley Fountain.

Despite being outshot, 18-1, in the first 45 minutes, High Point went into halftime trailing by just one goal, 1-0. Abbott made four saves in the first half to help maintain the one-goal deficit.

Wake Forest finally broke through in the 56th minute as the Demon Deacons would add four goals in the final 34 minutes with an own goal and tallies by Bianca D'Agostino, Kaley Fountain and Ally Barry.

"Wake Forest is a great team with some unbelievable players and to our credit it took them a long time to break is down," said Beall. "With that we learned there is some character in this team and some good fight. We just have to keep moving forward and build off tonight."

The Panthers return to action on Sunday, Aug. 23, when they travel to Blacksburg, Va., to take on Virginia Tech, their second ACC opponent of the weekend. The team then returns to Vert Stadium on Friday, Aug. 28 for its home opener against Loyola (Md.)