The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Blazers Drop Conference Match to UCF, 2-0
10/8/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 8, 2006
ORLANDO, Fla. - The UAB women's soccer team fell short of maintaining its unbeaten conference record, dropping a 2-0 decision to the UCF Golden Knights Sunday afternoon at the UCF Soccer Field. The Blazers record moves to 5-7 overall and 3-1 in Conference USA play, while the Golden Knights are posting a 7-5-1 overall mark and 3-1 in league games.
"I thought we played pretty well," said UAB head coach Paul Harbin. "I think we dominated the game and controlled the run of play. We just made a few mistakes and had some things happen that were out of our control."
UCF got its first score on the board when Hanna Wilde scored an unassisted goal from approximately 40 yards out during the 26th minute of the contest. The score remained 1-0 in favor of the Golden Knights heading into halftime.
During the second half, Harbin was ejected from the game after receiving a pair of yellow cards. His first yellow card came during the 51st minute when he was questioning a call against UAB that gave the Golden Knights a penalty kick. Roberta Pelarigo took the PK for UCF and scored to increase its lead, 2-0, over the Blazers. Harbin's second card, and ejection from the game, came less than two minutes later.
"You know, there are things you have control of in a game and there are things that are beyond your control," said Harbin. "One of the things that we had control of that we need to improve on is taking more shots from the top of the box. Instead of taking advantage of those opportunities, we tend to pass them along. We need to get better at that.
"There are also things you have no control over in a match. Unfortunately, today was a day that there were multiple things that happened that we could not control."
Overall, UCF out-shot the Blazers, 17-11. The shot count was close in the first half, with UCF tallying nine shots to UAB's seven. In the second half, UCF doubled UAB's shots, 8-4.
Junior forward Sally Palmer led the offensive attack for UAB with three shots against the Golden Knights. Junior Jenny Meyer and freshman Allison Auchter tallied two shots each.
UAB senior goalkeeper Julie McFarlane allowed a pair of goals and grabbed five saves in the loss for UAB. Jennifer Manis earned the win in goal for the Golden Knights, making five saves during the game.
The Blazers will continue their Conference USA slate on Friday, October 13 when they play UTEP in El Paso, Texas.
