HPU Women’s Soccer Thrills In 5-0 Win Over Longwood

• High Point scored a season-high five goals to pick up a 5-0 win over Longwood in the Big South Quarterfinals
• Redshirt-junior Kelsey Perrell had two goals and an assist for the Panthers
• The shutout was HPU’s 13th of the season, one shy of the Big South single-season record.

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The fourth-seeded High Point University women’s soccer team scored a season-high five goals in a 5-0 Big South Quarterfinal win over No. 5 Longwood on Saturday night at Vert Stadium. Redshirt-senior Kelsey Perrell led the offensive onslaught with two goals and an assist.

“I am very proud of the effort shown by this team tonight,” head coach Marty Beall said. “Longwood is a very good team that is well coached. I knew we were going to have to work our tails off defensively which is difficult to do against their possession style. It takes 100 percent effort and our girls did that tonight.”

The Panthers’ five goals on Saturday were just three shy of the eight total goals that Longwood had surrendered in 10 conference games this season and the most goals given up in a game by the Lancers in 2015.

High Point improves to 12-4-4 overall with the win, matching the program’s single-season record for wins. HPU previously won 12 games twice before moving to Div. I and again last season. Longwood finishes the 2015 campaign with a 9-8-2 overall record.

Perrell started the game off with a bang, scoring on a bicycle kick in the fourth minute of the contest. A free kick was played into the box and bounced to the redshirt-junior at the edge of the penalty area. With her back to goal, Perrell bicycled the ball into the far top corner to put HPU on the board.

Later in the first half, the Panthers added two goals in an 11-second period to extend a 1-0 lead to 3-0. Perrell scored the first of the two goals, pouncing on a rebound off a cross into the box by freshman Callyn Loughrey. Then off the restart, HPU got possession of the ball and sophomore Paige Rombach found sophomore Bri Jean-Charles in the box where she unleashed a hard shot to the far post from 18 yards.

Jean-Charles got her second goal of the night in the 58th minute when Perrell played her into space behind the Longwood defense. The forward beat the on-rushing Longwood keeper to the ball and hit a sliding shot into the net for her sixth goal of the season.

Junior Jenny Marshall finished out the scoring for HPU with a header in the 61st minute to push the final margin to 5-0. Senior Amy Burch hit a free kick into the box and Marshall slipped inside her marker to head it in for her second goal of the season.

The shutout by High Point is its 13th of the season, one shy of the Big South single-season record. Big South Defensive Player of the Year Alex Persiani played 77 minutes and made three saves while freshman Emily Lyonstopped one shot after relieving the sophomore.

High Point advances to the Big South Semifinals where the team will take on the winner of the game between No. 1 Liberty and No. 8 Winthrop. The semifinals will be played at Bryan Park in Greensboro, N.C., and kickoff for the Panthers’ game is set for 4 p.m.