STATESBORO, Georgia – Led by a goal and an assist from junior forward
Serenity Waters, UNCW opened its 2016 regular season schedule by earning a 3-0 victory over Georgia Southern in a non-conference game at Eagle Field on Friday evening.
"It was a great team effort from start to finish," Coach
Paul Cairney said. "It was good to see different goal scorers tonight. I thought our back four was excellent and defended very well as a group.
"Give credit to Georgia Southern. They were organized and made it tough [for us] to break them down. I thought their goalkeepers made some very good saves. We will enjoy this victory for the short time we have until we turn our focus to Sunday at South Carolina State."
The Seahawks, who made their first-ever visit to Georgia Southern, took a 1-0 lead in the 26th minute when freshman forward
Nikki Cox scored off a rebound of a Waters shot.
Freshman midfielder
Cassidy Overstreet upped the margin to 2-0 with 5:32 left in the first half when she scored on a shot that was deflected off a Georgia Southern defender.
Waters increased the Seahawks' advantage to 3-0 with 18:32 remaining when she scored on a long shot from 26 yards after receiving a pass from senior forward
Callie McClain.
Senior goalkeeper
Carolyn Huddy made three saves en route to recording the 14th shutout of her career as UNCW limited Georgia Southern to just six shots.
#SeahawkStats: The Seahawks won their season opener for the first time since 2011 and improved to 11-11-1 all-time in season openers … Huddy moved into a tie for second place on the Seahawks' all-time shutouts list, matching the 14 clean sheets recorded by
Caitlin Hunter from 2009-12 … UNCW improved to 2-1 all-time against Georgia Southern.
College Women's Soccer: UNCW 3, Georgia Southern 0
UNCW 2-1 / 3
Georgia Southern 0-0 / 0
Goals: UNCW –
Nikki Cox (25:23),
Cassidy Overstreet (39:28),
Serenity Waters (71:27); GS – n/a.
Assists: UNCW –
Serenity Waters,
Callie McClain; GS – n/a.
Saves: UNCW –
Carolyn Huddy 3 (90:00, 0 goals allowed); GS – Emily Flinn 7 (45:00, 2 goals allowed), Laurin Karinshak 3 (45:00, 1 goals allowed).
Shots: UNCW – 29; GS – 6.
Corner Kicks: UNCW – 8; GS – 1.
Attendance: 342.
