NC State Hands ECU its First Loss of Season

Raleigh, N.C. – The ECU women’s soccer team was handed its first loss of the season, 2-1, on the road at NC State Thursday night. The Wolfpack’s Tziarra King tallied both goals for NC State while ECU’s Chentay Warnes logged her first career goal.

NC State controlled the pace from the jump with Newhouse immediately having to make a play on a Wolfpack cross less than 10 seconds into the action. King’s first goal came in the 21st minute when she shot from the left side 10 yards out. Taylor Porter and Paige Griffiths picked up assists on King’s goal.

Fourteen minutes later Warnes scored from 25 yards out when NC State’s goalkeeper Gayson Cameron tipped the ball in an attempted save but it dropped in behind her. Ashley Kendrot assisted Warnes’ goal.

King scored the eventual game-winner in the 56th minute when she fired a shot from ten yards out on the left side that squeezed past Michelle Newhouse’s right side.

The Wolfpack outshot ECU 11-3 and held a 6-1 advantage in corner kicks. The Pirates took their only corner in the final minute and 30 seconds of the match.

Newhouse moves to 3-1-1 as the Pirates’ starting goalkeeper and recorded five saves in the loss.

Team Records

ECU (4-1-1), NC State (5-1)

Scoring Summary

20:16 – NC State Goal: Tziarra King (Taylor Porter, Paige Griffiths) [NC State 1, ECU 0]

34:34 – ECU Goal: Chentay Warnes (Ashley Kendrot) [NC State 1, ECU 1]

56:00 – NC State Goal: Tziarra King (Maxine Blackwood) [NC State 2, ECU 1]

Donnenwirth’s Thoughts

“I thought they made it [the game] difficult because they are very good. Their ability to play out of pressure and do all of those things was very impressive. I give my girls credit though. Honestly, I don’t know if the first 30 minutes was very pretty for us and they sort of had their way. But I think our goal gave us a little bit of juice and I thought there was times in the second half that we were able to do certain things and it wasn’t just them completely on the ball. We still need to get better, we are a good team when we pass the ball and at times we were under pressure and we just launched it long instead of trying to play soccer and play out of it.”

News and Notes

- The Pirates move to 4-1-1 on the season

- Thursday’s loss snapped a streak of three-consecutive shutouts for ECU, the first since the 2015 season

- ECU is now 3-3-1 all-time against the Wolfpack

- Warne’s goal was the first of her career as a Pirate

- King’s first goal in the 21st minute snapped a streak of 313 minutes in which the Pirates’ goalkeeper Newhouse had not allowed a goal

Up Next

ECU continues a two-game road stretch with a match at Charlotte on Sunday. Kickoff versus the 49ers is scheduled for 1 p.m.