Women's Soccer Blanks Campbell 2-0

Monday, August 24

Buies Creek, NC

NC State

2-0-0

Campbell

1-1-0

NC State

Campbell

8/25/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

BUIES CREEK, N.C. – The NC State women’s soccer team improved to 2-0 on the young season with a 2-0 victory at Campbell Monday night.

Sophomore Tanya Cain wasted little time in this match by scoring just 6:46 into the first half of play. She collected a pass from junior Nadia Aboulhosn and her left-footed shot deflected past Campbell keeper Anna Ditommaso for her first goal of the year.

The Wolfpack maintained its offensive pressure by peppering the net with 10 more shots in the first half with the best chance to go up two goals coming in the in the 27th minute when freshman Kara Blosser rang her shot off the crossbar.

"Campbell played a strong defensive formation in the first half by playing a lot of players deep to keep us from scoring," said NC State head coach Steve Springthorpe. "Their spacing was really good and outside of Tanya's early goal they limited our opportunites to mostly long range shots in the first half."

Campbell’s best chance of the period came shortly thereafter when Ashley Wagner’s long ball into the box fell to Hanna Salmen, who cut a pass back to Olga Ekblom, but she could not turn in the area before the Wolfpack cleared the ball.

NC State forced Ditommaso to come up with five saves in the opening half as the Pack went into the intermission with a 1-0 advantage.

It was more of the same in the second half as the Wolfpack attacked right from the start and after a wide shot by Blosser and another shot by a hard-charging Cain that the keeper kicked away, the Pack was finally able to give itself the cushion it was working so hard for in the 65th minute.

Senior Chantalle Dugas lofted a perfect set piece that Blosser was able to put a head on for her first collegiate goal at 65:44, giving NC State a 2-0 lead.

"Dugas sent a bending ball from just outside the 18 into the goal mouth and it found her (Blosser) head. It was a great serve and a nice finish," added Springthorpe, who picks up his first road victory with the Wolfpack.

On the other end of the pitch, NC State sophomore keeper Kim Kern and her defensive mates kept Campbell at bay most of the night.

The Camels didn’t even get off its first shot until the 69:59 mark of the second half. Kern made her only stop of the match about four minutes later off Cam Muller’s second attempt of the evening.

Kern posted her second straight shutout to begin the year after a 3-0 clean sheet last Friday night against Old Dominion in the season opener. The Raleigh, N.C., native also blanked Wofford and Western Carolina last season to begin the 2008 campaign.

The Wolfpack (2-0) finished with a 17-2 edge in shots.

Spingthorpe later mentioned, "We earned are second straight shutout with another strong defensive effort. We're glad to get another win under our belt and we'll enjoy this trip back to Raleigh tonight, but now its time to shift our focus to our next opponent.

That opponent is Davidson Friday night at Dail Soccer Field starting at 7:30 p.m.