RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Piedmont College women's soccer team fell 1-0 to Salem College on Sunday in a gritty battle between the pair of former conference rivals at the Meredith Soccer Classic. A first half goal with less than two minutes to go before the intermission put the Spirits up for good though Piedmont would turn the pressure in the 2nd half against the opposition looking to get the equalizer. <br />
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Salem dominated the run of play in the opening half taking seven shots to Piedmont's three as the Green and Gold spent much of the first 45 minutes defending on their own half. In the 44th minute, the Spirits finally broke through with a Tarryn Bundy goal that had Piedmont chasing the game the rest of the afternoon. <br />
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Despite the bleak outlook at the intermission, Piedmont again found a spark at the half and came out applying pressure early on the Salem defense. The Lady Lions would go on to outshoot the Spirits in the 2nd half eight to four but struggled to put one chance in forcing Salem keeper Kimmi Templeton to make five saves after needing to only tally one in the first half. <br />
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Piedmont looked to have equalized on a long distance strike from Shayna Rogers with 16 minutes to play as Templeton backpedaled towards her line on the shot. The Salem keeper was able to just get a touch on the ball parrying it off the crossbar and then claim the subsequent rebound to keep PC trailing 1-0. <br />
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Each team had two corners in the second half as Salem came away with the one-goal victory led in shots by Nataly Mojica with three while Piedmont's Megan Hatfield was tops in that column for the Lady Lions with three as well. Each team record 11 shots for the game. <br />
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The Lady Lions fall to 2-2 with the loss and now will have a few days to rest before their home opener, a 7 p.m. date with in-state rival Agnes Scott College on Thursday. The event will be broadcasted live on the Mane Event Broadcasting Network with pre-game starting 10 minutes before kickoff.
