CLEVELAND, Ga. — Campbellsville women's soccer started the season with a 1-0 win over Truett-McConnell (Ga.) after lightning, rain and darkness suspended play in the 71st minute.
The Lady Tigers (1-0) will now travel to Taylor University on Thursday, Aug. 27. Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET. The game can be followed on Dakstats and Twitter.
Campbellsville's first match of the season didn't start as planned, as the Lady Tigers were a step slower than Truett-McConnell (0-1) and didn't come out playing physical like the Bears.
"We started out playing like it was our first game," said CU coach Thom Jones. "At the start we were standing around waiting for the ball to come to us and not being aggressive. At halftime we got it out of our system, picked up the pace and physicality and started playing our game."
After the halftime speech, Campbellsville did indeed start to play its own game and opportunities on the offensive side of the field came in bunches.
Truett-McConnell was unable to keep an eye on Morgan Danis on a corner kick from Kathryn Thomas and the senior defender from Mt. Sterling, Ky. scored the first goal of the season to put CU up 1-nil in the 53rd minute.
"Kat (Thomas) played a great ball into the box," said Jones. "Morgan slid right in there and sacrificed her body to get to the ball and score. That is great to see early in the season but also when it comes from a defender."
Campbellsville kept firing away but was unable to find the back of the net. The Lady Tigers out shot the Bears 7-1 in the second half with only Danis' score sneaking past the goalkeeper Lexi Kent.
Kent finished the match with eight saves, as nine of the Lady Tigers 12 shots were on goal.
Campbellsville's Amanda Howard kept the Bears out of the net with four saves and recorded her eighth shutout in her first 25 games.
Game notes:
• Campbellsville opens the season with a win for the second-straight season – the only two wins to start the season in the nine years with Thom Jones at the helm.
• Truett-McConnell falls to 0-1 to open the season.
• Thom Jones extends his head coaching record to 96-61-9
• Sophomore Amanda Howard recorded four saves for a total of 137 in her career.
• Senior Rachel Veatch, junior captain Chelsea Gill and Howard started their 25th game in a row going back to 2014.
