Oct. 24, 2008

Final Stats

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The UAB women's soccer team battled to a 2-2 tie in double overtime with Conference USA foe East Carolina Friday evening at West Campus Field. Freshmen Laura McCalla and Tiffini Turpin scored one goal each for the Blazers in the tie with the Pirates.

UAB moves to 6-9-2 overall and 4-3-2 in conference games. The Blazers are on a roll lately, going 3-0-2 in their last five outings. East Carolina, who is in first place in the C-USA standings, saw its record move to 11-3-3 overall and 6-0-3 in the league.

"I think we played very well," said UAB head coach Paul Harbin. "I was proud of how our team played this evening. I thought we moved the ball extremely well and had a lot of passion and energy tonight. We did some good things.

"I have to give credit to ECU. They have done a great job all season of finding ways to get it done. They did a nice job tonight."

UAB struck first in the eighth minute when McCalla knocked in her sixth goal of the season, with an assist by junior forward Danya Barsalona, to give the Blazers the early 1-0 lead.

East Carolina responded in the 19th minute when Alexis Foltz found the back of the net, assisted by Blair Heffner, to tie the game at 1-1.

The Blazers regained the lead in the 68th minute when Turpin scored an unassisted goal, her seventh of the year, to put UAB up 2-1.

The Pirates answered with a goal in the 74th minute, courtesy of Madison Keller, to tie the game up at 2-2. Neither team could take advantage of the chances it had the rest of regulation and during the two overtime periods, resulting in a 2-2 tie.

"We moved the ball around really well today," said McCalla. "We need to work on getting it up top and finishing better. We had a few breakdowns, but not too bad. We just need to be solid for the entire game."

UAB dominated in overall shots over East Carolina, 23-9, including outshooting the Pirates 11-1 in the second half. The Blazers had 14 shots on goal, compared to six for the Pirates.

Turpin paced the Blazers with five shots, including four shots on goal. Sophomore midfielder Marie Yempuku added four shots, while freshman defender Pascale Pinard and senior midfielder Caitlin Marple added three shots each.

"We definitely stepped it up today against the top team in the conference," said Turpin. "We were playing quick. We were playing a lot of one and two touch in the beginning. I think we slowed it down a little bit when we realized they weren't stepping up to us as much.

"I think we stepped up the intensity today, probably because they are the number one team in the conference. Overall, we played good. We got it in the net twice, but we didn't capitalize on our other chances."

East Carolina was led by Amanda Malkiewicz with three shots, followed by Keller and Savanna Russo with two shots apiece.

Sophomore goalkeeper Kate Blankenship tallied four saves while allowing two goals on the night for UAB. Amber Campbell allowed two goals and grabbed 12 saves in the net for East Carolina.

Next up for the Blazers is a C-USA match at Marshall on Sunday afternoon. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET at Sam Hood Field in Huntington, W. Va.