FENTON, Mo. - Playing a match for the first time in 480 days, Webster University women's soccer opened its long delayed 2020-21 season here Wednesday evening by suffering a hard-fought 3-2 setback to Greenville University in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action at World Wide Technology Soccer Park.
Prior to Wednesday's match, the Gorloks most recent women's soccer match came on Nov. 9, 2019 as the Gorloks faced off with Wheaton (Ill.) College in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament.
The loss was the just the fifth for the Gorloks in a season opener in school history and the first loss in a season opener since 2016 when Webster fell 1-0 at Edgewood College.
Wednesday's match was the first time Webster went 11-on-11 on the season as they split their practice sessions into two separate teams, but not scrimmage during practice due to social distancing and contact tracing protocols that have been set up to help mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic, while Greenville was playing its second match of the season as the Panthers played an exhibition match on March 5 at Fontbonne.
On the night, Webster was outshot, 14-5 against the Panthers, including being outshot, 12-2 in the second half, as two of the five shots by the Gorloks came from both senior midfielder
Payton Williams (St. Louis, Mo./Fort Zumwalt East) and sophomore defender
Reaghan Young (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley).
Greenville got into the scoring column first in the match as Jordan Wilson took a pass from Emma Cadwell and connected on a shot from the middle of the box that went into the right corner of the goal in the 15th minute.
Williams would get the Gorloks on the scoreboard about four mintues later as she took a shot from about 25 yards out to tie the match. Williams' shot was assisted on by junior midfielder
Jordan Bilyeu (St. Louis, Mo./Lindbergh).
Cadwell gave Greenville a 2-1 lead in the 52nd minute as she scored on an unassisted goal.
About 10 minutes later, freshman forward
Lauren Colombo (St. Louis, Mo./Oakville) took a pass from Williams and found the goal to retie the match at 2-all.
Jen De Leon De Leon was able to find the goal past a diving sophomore
Taryn Banfield (Plano, Texas/Plano East) in goal to give the Panthers a 3-2 lead late the 76th minute to give the Panthers a 3-2 lead.
Banfield kept it a 3-2 game when she made a save on shot on goal by Kierra Coleman in the 77th minute. Banfield made two more saves in the final 10-plus minutes of the match as she stopped shots by Wilson in the 79th and 88th minute.
For the match. Banfield (0-1) played all 90 minutes and recorded six saves for the Gorloks.
Grace Gehner (1-0) played all 90 minutes in goal for Greenville as she allowed two goals and didn't record a save.
Wilson took five of Greenville's 14 shots and put three of her shots on goal, while Cadwell had three shots.
Both teams had four corner kicks and Greenville held an 8-7 edge in fouls on the night.
The Gorloks will look to rebound on Wednesday, March 17 as they travel Louisville, Ky., for a 4:30 ET SLIAC match against Spalding University.
