Mountaineers Suffer Setback in Double Overtime

BOONE, N.C. - Appalachian State University women's soccer (1-6-2, 0-1 SBC) suffered a 2-1 setback in double overtime to South Alabama (3-4-1, 1-0 SBC) on Friday evening in the Sun Belt opener for both teams.

South Alabama would need a late score by Danielle Henley to force overtime, and later Kory Dixon secured the win for the hosts at 104 to push USA to a 1-0 start in league action. 

The Mountaineers had the defending Sun Belt Tournament champions right where they wanted them, leading 1-0 with just under two minutes left in the match. App led for 66 minutes after Kat Greer showcased some nifty one-on-one moves to get past the  defender and sent a beautiful shot into the upper right corner to give Appalachian the 1-0 edge at the 12-minute mark of the first stanza. For Greer, it was the second goal of the season and the second her young career. 

For the majority of the match, the backline coupled with numerous big-time saves from Taylor Ray kept the Jaguars out of the net. Ray was aggressive inside the box while registering eight saves on the evening, which was one shy of tying her career high of nine from earlier this season. 

Appalachian had opportunities in both halves to extend the lead, where it would attempt two more shots on target, which were both taken by Maggie Hanusek. Sharon Osterbind also fired off an attempt that was on target as well, giving the redshirt senior two SOG in the past three matches (two in the first six matches).  The offense in the second half tried to keep up the momentum but was outshot, 11-1, by USA. 

The Black and Gold also tied a season-high with six corner kicks and fired off 12 shot attempts.

A road match on Sunday with Georgia State now awaits the Mountaineers. GSU lost its Sun Belt opener as well to Texas State on Friday night, 3-1. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. in Atlanta.