HPU Women’s Soccer Drops Exhibition Match to Western Carolina, 5-0

CULLOWHEE, N.C. – The High Point University women’s soccer team lost to Western Carolina, 5-0, in its lone exhibition match of the season Friday night in Cullowhee, N.C. Senior goalie Jesse May made eight saves in the loss.

Freshman Jenny Marshall led the Panthers with three shots including one on goal. HPU put up 11 shots with eight on frame in the match.

“Tonight was a great learning experience for our young players,” head coach Marty Beall said. “We had 11 or 12 players for whom this was their first college action. We are a little banged up right now so this game gave us a chance to give a lot of players quality minutes. I was pleased with the things we were able to do offensively. That has been a focus of our preseason and we did pretty well with the things we have been preaching. I am very confident that this resilient team will be ready when the season starts next weekend.”

The game remained scoreless until the 35th minute when the Catamounts’ Kayla Sedgley opened the scoring with a goal off a pass by Christine Cockrell. Cockrell added a second assist in the 42nd minute when Western added to its lead with a goal off the head of Christine Kaznowski and went into the locker room at the half up 2-0.

Western Carolina added three goals in the second half to win by a final margin of 5-0. Madison Lee scored for WCU in the 47th minute, Tara Bidnick scored in the 61st minute and Kasey Cooke scored in the 77th minute.

The regular season begins for High Point on Friday, Aug. 23, when the team travels to Blacksburg, Va., to play Virginia Tech at 7 p.m. The Panthers open their home schedule on Sept. 1 with a game against Georgia Southern at 2 p.m.