Oct. 2, 2011

Box Score

Box Score

GREENEVILLE, N.C. - The University of Memphis women's soccer team collected its eighth shutout of the season and topped East Carolina (5-4-1, 0-3-0 C-USA), 2-0, at the East Carolina Soccer Stadium on Sunday.

No. 6 Memphis (12-0-0, 4-0-0 C-USA) grabbed a 1-0 lead in the 26th minute and benefited from a misplay by East Carolina defender Kendall Booth. Lady Tiger defender Christie Kline booted the ball from midfield to the 18-yard box and Booth yanked the clearing header into her own net for the Memphis goal.

"I thought we played well today, but more importantly we played our style of soccer for 90 minutes," head coach Brooks Monaghan said. "We possessed the ball well and got the result we needed. Sometimes those own goals happen, but again I am pleased with the way we played our style of soccer for 90 minutes."

Rasheeda Ansari scored in the 63rd minute to increase the Memphis lead to 2-0. Kelley Gravlin passed the ball to Christabel Oduro on the left side and Oduro served the ball to the center of the box where Ansari put it away for the goal. It was Ansari's fourth goal of the season and Gravlin notched her fourth assist of the season on the play. Oduro records her third assist of the season and leads the team with 13 points.

Memphis goalkeeper Elise Kuhar-Pitters was not tested in the match until the 85th minute, but the redshirt-senior made the save to preserve the clean sheet. Kimmy Cummings found a seam in the Memphis defense and fired the shot on frame, but Kuhar-Pitters dove and made the save.

Kuhar-Pitters collected her eighth clean sheet of the season and 31st of her career. With the shutout, Kuhar-Pitters improved her goals-against average to 0.26 on the year and registered her 47th career victory.

The Lady Tiger defense limited the Pirates to just three shots in the match and Memphis held a 13-3 shot edge. Natalia Gomez-Junco paced the offensive attack with four shots, two on frame. Gravlin also posted two shots on frame for the Lady Tigers.

The U of M closed a five-game road trip with a perfect 5-0 record and posted four shutouts in the five matches. Memphis improves to 9-0-2 all-time against East Carolina. The Lady Tigers are unbeaten in 12 matches for the first time in program history. Memphis improved to 33-7-5 in October matches dating back to the 2006 season. The Lady Tigers are 18-3-3 in C-USA road matches since 2007 and a perfect 8-0 in road matches this season. The U of M stands at 75-20-6 since the 2007 season.

"As a team, we are playing well on both sides of the field," Monaghan said. "Defensively we are making it difficult on teams to get quality shots and if a team gets a quality shot Elise is there to come up with the save. As a team we are playing a good brand of soccer and we hope to continue to improve with each game."

Memphis returns to Mike Rose Soccer Complex for a four-game home stand that begins on Friday with a 7 p.m. match up with SMU.