The South Carolina women's soccer team picked up a 3-0 win over the Wolfpack of NC State at their first home game Thursday night.
Head coach Shelley Smith praised her team for the fast start, saying, “They put pressure on NC State and it continued and they found goals out of it.”
Smith also complimented the fans responsible for the atmosphere at the stadium. “It was phenomenal. We don’t see that on the road a lot times when we are on the road, so we get spoiled at home,” she said.
It took just 12 minutes for the Gamecocks to get on the board. Junior forward Savannah McCaskill took the ball down the right wing and whipped a low cross into the 18-yard box, which was tucked away neatly into the corner of the net by forward and redshirt senior Bay Daniel. It was McCaskill’s first assist of the season and Daniel’s second goal in three games.
McCaskill said of the fast start, “The first 10 minutes of the game we want to kind of take control, then slow the game down and play our style of play.” The Gamecocks did just that, and the Wolfpack were never able to recover.
The Gamecocks struck again just seven minutes later, this time off the head of Paige Bendell. Senior midfielder Chelsea Drennan lofted a corner kick across the pitch that Bendell, the senior defender, slotted into the upper-right corner of the net. The play was met with much applause and other indescribable noises emanating from vuvuzelas, essentially out of tune trumpets, that were given out to students as they entered the gates.
Even while dominating possession and taking an early lead, the Gamecocks were unable to tack on any more goals in the first half despite having several chances. The second 45-minute period was marked by another Gamecock goal and a flurry of yellow cards.
The Gamecock’s third goal resulted from yet another play made by McCaskill, this time in the 55th minute. After USC swept away a Wolfpack cornerkick, McCaskill sprinted downfield, intercepted an errant pass from the NC State goalkeeper, then passed to Drennan for a tap in goal. It was another example of McCaskill seemingly always being at the right place at the right time.
“That constant awareness of where I should be next is something I really pride myself on,” she said. It was McCaskill’s second assist of the game and season as well as Drennan’s first goal of the 2016 campaign.
Ella Bonner of NC State and Lauren Pinkham of South Carolina were booked with yellow in the 75th and 78th minutes, respectively. The teams spent the final twelve minutes playing at what seemed like half speed, watching the seconds tick off the clock.
The Gamecocks are now 2-0-1 on the season after defeating Tulsa and tying Oklahoma last weekend. The team will travel to Orlando on Sunday to take on the UCF Knights. The next home game will be on September 2 against the Clemson Tigers.