Greensboro, N.C. - Greensboro College Women's Soccer Head Coach Mike Johnston and his troops had not boarded a bus this season for a team trip. The Pride had played the first five of their schedule on home turf.

While enjoying the home cooking, Coach Johnston had been forced to mix and match lineups for a variety of reasons. However, just about 24 hours earlier the Pride was building confidence as they were scrapping with Randoph-Macon College at Pride Field. A Yellowjackets team that has aspirations to be in the NCAA National Tournament. The question would remain, was the Pride's efforts against a national powerhouse going to be good enough to take the field at Averett University and find their first victory?

As the game began, the Pride would again depend on Freshman Goalie Sofia Pagnamenta to provide the protection in net. The angular and mobile Pagnementa, coming off a 28 save week, would again be called upon to be the Pride's neutralizer in this contest. Early in the season scoring goals has been the greatest obstacle for the Pride.

In the first half, the Pride struggled to register a shot but, good defense and stellar goaltending would enable the visitors to end the first half deadlocked at zeros.

However, in the second half, Coach Johnston's group would find their scoring lanes and create chances to secure a potential game winner. The new found offensive threats would pay off at the 68:16 mark as Haley Russell would find hardworking Jamayia Brown for the Pride goal and the lead.

The defense would need to stand tall for the remaining 20 minutes to secure the Pride's first victory of 2022. Averett felt a sense of urgency and upped their energy to fire 7 of their 13 shots on goal in the second stanza. However, a well planned defensive strategy and one of the most reliable young goaltenders in the country would stymie the Cougars as the Pride would capture the 1-0 victory.

An elated Head Coach Mike Johnston had these post-game comments: " I am very proud of the grit and resilience this team showed today. Playing back to back at this level is quite difficult and we gutted it out. The entire buildup to our goal was quality and Haley's assist and the finish by Jamayia was quite good. Happy for the group to be able to win against a really good team in Averett."

The Greensboro College Women's Soccer team will next travel across town to play Guilford College on Tuesday, September 20th at 7:00PM.

For more information on Greensboro College Women's Soccer please visit www.greensborocollegesports.com