HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University women's soccer team dropped its season opener, 2-0, to No. 14 Virginia Tech at Vert Stadium on Thursday night.
Site: Vert Stadium
Score: High Point 0, #14 Virginia Tech 2
Records: High Point (0-1-0), Virginia Tech (1-0-0)
Head Coach Aaron McGuiness: "Tough opening game against a top 25 opponent. I thought the first half we defended well. We took away a lot of their opportunities, forcing them to shoot from range. We had a couple opportunities ourselves where we could have done a little bit better. In the second half, we didn't come out firing in those key moments. It's something we talked about, and we need to improve on. That is really what got the better of us. I think we got our feet back under ourselves and we did our jobs. It was kind of the seven-minute period where we lost the game."
High Point started the match defending the ball well causing the Hokies to switch up their game plan. All 11 Panthers on the pitch were contributing to stopping the attack. The redshirt sophomore,
Bella Burr fired off the first shot for the Panthers in her Purple & White debut that went just wide.
After a physical 45 minutes from both sides, the Panthers and the Hokies went into halftime with no score.
The second half started hot for Virginia Tech as they were able to work an early goal from Taylor Price in the 49th minute. It wasn't long before the Hokies netted their second goal as Price tallied her second of the night in the 52nd minute.
While fifth year keeper,
Aubrey McKessy was busy stopping a career-high 13 saves, she was able to keep the Panthers in the game as they fought for an opening to score.
"I thought she kept us in the game for a lot of it," McGuiness said. "She's a very good keeper and she showed that. Full credit to Virginia Tech at the end. They all praised her, and she deserves it. They got some shots off from range and there were good shots that she was able to make some big saves. There were two lapses, but she had a bunch of outstanding saves."
On top of a physical game, McGuiness was able to sub in some new faces to the Panthers lineup as
Coryn McDonnell,
Faye Battersby,
Joellie Giquinto,
Mazie Monroe, and
Kennedy Harmon all logged minutes in tonight's match.
The two goals from Price early in the second half was good enough to seal the Thursday night, 2-0, victory over High Point.
Up Next: High Point will hit the road and face Western Carolina University on Sunday, August 17 at 1:00 p.m.
#GoHPU
