Sept. 7, 2001

Stats

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Saint Louis University women's soccer team dropped a 2-1 decision to Auburn tonight in the first game of the Virginia Soccer Classic. Trailing 1-0 at the half, the Billikens knotted the game in the 52nd minute, but gave up the game winner four minutes later to suffer their first loss of the season.

"We struggled in the first half, but played much harder in the second," Saint Louis head coach Tim Champion said. "Auburn is a strong, physical team, and it took us some time to adjust to that in our attack."

The second period opened with the Billikens dodging a bullet. On an Auburn corner kick, Gretchen Winter blasted a shot past keeper Meghann Burke (St. Louis, Mo./Mehlville) only to have it cleared away by Saint Louis midfielder Mandy Trokey (St. Louis, Mo./Notre Dame) who was guarding the near post.

After recording just one shot in the first half, the Billiken offense found more room in the second period. The break finally came just six minutes into the half when Trokey arced a corner kick into the box where 5-foot-5 battled through taller defenders to head the ball home from eight yards out.

The momentum seemed to turn with the equalizer. The Tigers continued to be physical and capitalized on a Burke miscue to take the lead again. Ginger Sellick brought the ball up the left side and served it into Winter who one-touched it past Burke for the eventual game winner.

The Tigers were the aggressors for much of the first half, outshooting the Bills 7-1 and forcing Burke into three saves. Saint Louis defended well throughout the half as the Billikens staved off four corners and challenged every ball. With just two minutes remaining in the half, the Tigers got on the board with a 20-yard blast off the foot of Jennifer Walters that found the narrow opening between the leaping Burke and the crossbar. Before the half ended, the Tigers got another good look o n a breakaway up the middle of the field. Burke came out to challenge, but could not take the ball off the foot of Sarah Steinmann. She did slow her enough to allow Billiken midfielder Sara Swindle (Littleton, Colo./Littleton) to recover and prevent the shot.

The Billikens wrap up the Virginia Soccer Classic with a noon (CST) contest against West Virginia on Sun., Sept. 9.