No. 11 West Virginia Defeats Women's Soccer 4-2

9/18/2002

Lauren Sciocchetti, Laura Marsh score goals for the Panthers, Jamie Pelusi makes 14 saves

No. 11 West Virginia bounced back from a 1-0 deficit with four unanswered goals to defeat Pittsburgh 4-2 in women?s soccer Wednesday night at Founders Field.  The loss drops Pittsburgh to 3-4-0 and 0-1-0 in the Big East while West Virginia improves to 6-1-0 and 1-0-0 in the Big East.  The game was the Big East Conference opener for both squads.

Pittsburgh went up 1-0 just five minutes into the contest when Laura Marsh?s shot hit off the top cross bar and bounced in the WVU goal.  Marsh controlled a crossing pass from Cara Kappler from the right side for the goal.

West Virginia bounced right back with a score of its own seven minutes later when Laura Kane finished off a pass from Rachel Kruze.  Kane scored again five minutes later in the 17^th minute when she took advantage of a defensive mistake to register an unassisted goal.  The Mountaineers took a 3-1 lead into halftime when Chrissie Abbott scored on a cross from teammate Lisa Stoia in the 42^nd minute.

West Virginia added its fourth goal in the 79^th minute when Abbott finished off a Stoia through ball up the middle of the Pittsburgh defense.

West Virginia outshot Pittsburgh 31-5 on the evening as Pittsburgh goalkeeper Jamie Pelusi made 14 saves on the evening.  The Mountaineers finished with six corner kicks to Pittsburgh?s two.

?We had moments in the game where we were great,? Pittsburgh head coach Roland Sturk said.  ?We just didn?t maintain it for 90 minutes.  You can?t do that against a nationally ranked team and the No. 1 ranked team in the region.  We started the game out on the right foot but we just didn?t maintain our intensity throughout.?

Pittsburgh made it 4-2 in the 82^nd minute on Lauren Sciocchetti?s scoring header off Jacqueline Fix?s high arching corner kick.  Pittsburgh is next in action Friday night at 7 p.m. when it hosts Big East Conference foe Villanova at Founders Field.  The Panthers will host Rutgers Sunday at 1 p.m.