Women's Soccer Heads to Tennessee Tech on Sunday

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The UNC Asheville women's soccer team heads to the road Sunday afternoon to take on Tennessee Tech starting at 3 p.m. CST.

The Bulldogs (0-2-0) will be looking for their first win of the season in their first road title of the year. Asheville fell at home to ETSU, 4-1 on Aug. 22 and 4-0 to Western Carolina on Aug. 27.

First-year coach Michelle Demko saw positives in the Western Carolina loss.

"We really played a lot better against Western Carolina than we did against ETSU," commented Demko. "Western Carolina is a good club and at times we did a nice job controlling play and attacking. However, we gave up a couple of goals that we shouldn't have and that put us back a little. We really played a lot better than the final score indicated."

The Bulldogs face a Golden Eagle squad that is 0-3 on the season pending a match at Vanderbilt on Friday.

"We just want to play consistent and focused soccer for 90 minutes against Tennessee Tech," admitted Demko. "We need to score when we have our chances to score and not let down defensively."

Asheville has been getting some shots on goal in each match as it has 21 shots in two games. Freshman Chole McCleary-Small has seven shots for the Bulldogs. Katy Beeler and Leilani Halkiotis have three shots each. Halkiotis scored Asheville's lone goal this season vs. ETSU.

The Bulldogs lead the all-time series between the teams, 7-3. Asheville won a thriller against the Golden Eagles last year, 2-1, scoring twice in the final 20 minutes to win. McCleary-Small fed Lauren Turnburke for the tying goal with 19 minutes left. McCleary-Small then scored the game-winner in the 83^rd minute for the winner.

Asheville plays next at Elon Thursday night before hosting Wofford on Sunday, Sept. 12 at 2 p.m.