Nov. 7, 2002
Greensboro, NC - Western Carolina's soccer team fell short Thursday night as Furman's Faith Stewart scored the game's lone goal in the 69th minute to lift Wofford to a 1-0 victory in the first round of the 2002 Women's Soccer Tournament at UNCG Soccer Stadium. WCU finishes the 2002 season at 10-6-3 overall and 7-1-2 in the SoCon.
Western Carolina had scoring opportunities late in the match with Natasha Moore just missing high with 10 minutes left in regulation. Wofford's goalkeeper Katie Menegaz then recorded a huge save in the 84th minute when Morgan Foresman rocketed a shot towards the goal.
Stewart scored the game-winning goal on a header. Jaime Cutts was credited with the assist. Menegaz recorded five saves in the match, while Western's all-conference keeper Mandi Tinsley also recorded five to bring her total to 130 for the year, a new WCU record. Tinsley led the league in saves and, as of November 3, ranks 14th in the nation in saves per game.
"This was a tough way for us to go out and it'll be real hard to see these seniors go," said WCU head coach Debbie Hensley. "This loss definitely doesn't take away from the great accomplishments this group has achieved over the last four years."
Nine Catamount seniors finished their WCU careers in the match tonight. Goalkeeper Mandi Tinsley, defender/midfielder Kyla Deon, midfielder Nardia Moore, midfielder Morgan Foresman, defender Meghan Doherty, defender Sarah Rice, forward/midfielder Kelly Barker, forward Christel Kirkpatrick and defender Jamie Pawlik dressed in their Western Carolina uniforms tonight for the last time.
Among the many highlights this group of seniors has produced over the four years Western has had women's soccer program includes never having a losing season, defeating each SoCon team at least once, having a 17-match home unbeaten streak, ending this regular-season with an unbeaten streak of seven SoCon road games, earning the second seed in this year's SoCon Championship, finishing second in last year's SoCon Championship and winning a share of the SoCon regular-season title in 2001.
