Sept. 24, 2005

Box Score

Fairfax, VA (September 24, 2005)--The George Mason women's soccer team opened conference play in the Colonial Athletic Association with a 2-1 win against Towson at George Mason Stadium. Mason improves to 5-4-0 (1-0) on the season and Towson drops to 4-2-1 (0-1). Members of the 1985 National Championship team were honored at halftime.

The Patriots played the majority of the game on the offensive half of the field, and out-shot the Tigers 30-9. In the first half alone, the Patriots shot 13 times to one shot by the Tigers, but it was a scoreless half. It didn't take long for Mason to score in the second half when Jenny Sparks recorded her first goal of the season in the 51st minute with a header at the goal line assisted by Alison Feldman.

Leading scorer for the Patriots Rachel Wiggins scored the game-winning goal, her fifth goal of the season, at 64:32 off a header pass from the right corner to go up 2-0. Towson made it interesting in the 86th minute with a goal from Marissa Gross as she fired a shot from the top of the box to the center of the goal.

"We out shot them 30-9 and that didn't translate in the scoring, but we'll take the win," said Head Coach Diane Drake. "We had two very good goals. I felt the team played well the first 30 minutes of the second half, but let the foot off the gas in the final 15."

Starting goalkeeper Olivia Brown needed only three saves for the win to improve to 4-3 on the season. Jodi Taetle recorded 12 saves in the loss for Towson. Out of Mason's 30 shots Jessica Paris and Daneille MacDonald led the Patriots with five shots each, and the other 20 were spread out among 11 players.

The women have a pair of CAA games next weekend. They will travel to Virginia Commonwealth on Friday, September 30 for a 7 p.m. match before returning home on Sunday for a game against James Madison at 1 p.m.