ADDINGTON SCORES GAME-WINNER, ARAFA SCORES TWICE IN VICTORY
ATLANTA- The Georgia State women’s soccer team earned its first win of the season with a 3-0 defeat of SE Louisiana Friday night. Freshman Alex Addington scored the game-winner and Suzanne Arafa scored the final two goals.

With the win, the Panthers improved to 1-2 and the Lions fell to 1-1.

GSU opened the match offensively strong, taking nine shots with six on goal. Addington scored the opening goal at the seven-minute mark, which proved to be the game winner. Arafa scored the final two goals, putting the Panthers up 3-0 after 38 minutes.

Redshirt senior Siobhan Wilson assisted on the first two goals of the game.

Coming out of the half, the Panthers tried to keep their lead. GSU held the Lions to eight shots overall, with Brie Haynes and Olivia Mitrovich combining for four saves.

Georgia State posted 14 shots, with Arafa posting seven to lead the team. Of the team’s 14 shots, seven were on goal.

"The girls put in a quality team performance tonight," head coach Ed Joyce said. It's always nice to put a couple goals away early. We must improve in the way we manage the game but tonight we made progress."

The Panthers will be back on the field on Sunday, traveling to Jacksonville State for the first of a four-match road stretch.

Eagles Draw, as Karinshak Continues to Dominate
LinksSTATESBORO, Ga. – On a cool Friday evening in Macon, Georgia, the Eagles opened up the Mercer Tournament against Kennesaw State. The Blue and White posted 19 shots and continued to play defensively, posting their second consecutive clean sheet. Sophomore keeper Lauren Karinshak continued her scoreless streak, extending it to 245 minutes. Friday marked her third career clean-sheet and her second this season.

Freshman Juvenia Hylton checked into the game for the first time this season making her the youngest to play in a game for the Eagles at the age of 16. Hylton played 34 minutes, recording her first career colligate shot. 11 different Eagles recorded a shot against Kennesaw State, with five of them taking two or more shots Friday night.

MATCH FACTS
Kennesaw State (1-0-2) – 0
Georgia Southern (1-1-1) – 0

NOTES
- The 16-year-old Juveina Hylton gets her first action of the season, checking in the 38th minute.
- Kennesaw State outshot the Eagles 21-19 in the double overtime draw.
- Lauren Karinshak had faced 12 shots and saved all of them, bumping her season total up to 15 on the season.
- Aila Sendra, Alana McShane, and Nicole Aussin led the team with 3 shots a piece.
- Four Eagles played 110 minutes in Macon this evening.

WHAT HEAD COACH BRIAN DUNLEAVY SAID
"I am pleased with the performance, I thought we were rock solid defensively. The shot count might have been a little high for both teams, I'm not sure either team took that many. Both team's battles and they were tough to break down. We had better possession, but we just need more dynamic attacking play. I thought we played with a high level of focus, intensity, and effort. I am happy with the performance, but now we need to take another step forward as a team."

NEXT UP
The Eagles will face off against Siena (0-1-0) in the final match of the Mercer Tournament Sunday at 1:00 PM.

Trojans Bested at Home by Murray State
TROY, Ala. – The Troy soccer team tied the game in the 54th minute but conceded in the 78th to drop a 2-1 result to Murray State on Friday at the Troy Soccer Complex.

The game remained scoreless for the first 51 minutes until the Racers (2-0) found pay dirt off the right foot of Miyah Watford. Cori Cain set up the score by lobbing a pass from midfield over the Trojan back line. Watford then headed down the ball and drove it home from eight yards away.

Troy (1-3) answered quickly when Haley Roberson drove a left-footed cross that was meet by Julia Winter, who's headed shot sailed over the keeper and into the net for the sophomore's second goal in as many games. Roberson now has three assists in the last two games.

In the 78th minute, Murray State keeper Alex Steigerwald punted the ball past the midfield line where Emma Heise headed it directly to a streaking Harriet Withers who scored the game-winner uncontested.

QUOTABLE
"We wanted to posses the ball better than we did," Troy head coach Ged O'Connor said. "In fairness to Murray State, they did a good job of shutting us down. We made some adjustments in eh second half and thought we looked a lot better."

UP NEXT
Troy travels to face Jackson State at 2 p.m. on Sunday. The Trojans are 3-0 all-time against the Tigers. The game will be streamed at Facebook.com/JStateTigers.

NOTEWORTHY
• Katrine Jacobsen started in goal for the second consecutive game. Mikki Lewis came on a halftime and finished the game between the posts.

• Mecca Cobbin made her season debut, while freshman KK Pavelczyk saw her first career action.

Cajuns Drop Home Opener 2-0 To McNeese
LAFAYETTE – Under cloudy skies and Hurricane Harvey's presence the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns women's soccer team lost their home opener to the McNeese Cowgirls 2-0 in a game originally scheduled to be held in Lake Charles, but due to the weather was moved to Lafayette and played here at the Ragin' Cajuns Soccer/Track Complex.

The loss is the Cajuns third defeat of the season and it drops their record to 0-3-0, while the win is the Cowgirls second straight and it raises their record to 2-1-0.

HOW IT HAPPENED (First Half): The first half was a hard-fought affair for both teams. It included end-to-end action with both teams working hard.

Louisiana got on the sheet first with a shot from senior Ashleigh Cade in the 16th minute. That shot was followed up rather shortly by senior Denice Emokpae ripping one just right of goal, showing the Cajuns had come out to play.

McNeese's Savannah LaRicci gave the Cowgirls their first real chance when she chipped one off the tip of her foot, in the 20th minute, that slammed under the crossbar and came right down into sophomore Victoria Mendes' arms.

Things continued to bounce back and forth for the two teams, and freshman Una Einarsdottir took a corner in the 23rd minute, that saw senior Whitney Taggart head towards goal. Taggart was a force in front of goal during the first half, creating several chances when she was given the opportunity.

Einarsdottir took yet another corner in the 24th minute that lead to the Cajuns best chance on goal, when freshman Grace Champagne held the line long enough to squeeze past the defense.

She lunged for the ball and the tip of her foot gave just a slight touch that allowed the ball to get on goal, but Cowgirl goalkeeper Emma Roccaforte recovered just in time to make the save denying the Cajuns in their best chance of the half.

Physical play continued through the remainder of the half, but the score stayed scoreless as the match headed into halftime.

HOW IT HAPPENED (Second Half): As the second half begun both teams were looking to get an edge, and it was the Cajuns that got the first chance with Einarsdottir's corner in the 51st minute.

But the Cowgirls would strike first when in the 56th minute Havana Johnson scored off a throw in from Gabi D'Alesandro. D'Alesandro's throw came from midfield and Johnson worked her way down the left wing and ripped the ball from inside the box that went high left into net.

From there the Cajuns didn't give up and less than five minutes later, Einarsdottir ripped a shot that nailed the post in the 60th minute.

In the 67th minute, with Louisiana still attempting to keep their work rate up, the Cowgirls struck again when Johnson took another midfield throw in from Nola Prickett. Johnson then worked her way to goal and ripped her second goal of the game into the top right corner.

Louisiana didn't give up and maintained their pressure through the game, with Einarsdottir continuing her hard-fought game adding four shots to the Cajuns total in the final 13 minutes of the game.

Those shots included two on goal, the first coming in the 83rd minute and the final coming in the 88th minute. Einarsdottir's final 13 minutes were an example of the finish the Cajuns had, never giving up and making sure to make Roccaforte earn her win.

NOTEWORTHY: Mendes was the first Cajuns keeper to play a full 90 minutes this season, and she recorded three saves while facing five shots; Einarsdottir lead the day for the Cajuns and the young freshman recorded five shots with two that went on goal and she's recorded eight shots in the past two games combined.

Cade added one shot on goal along with Champagne finishing her third straight game with at least one shot on goal; The Cajuns finished with 13 shots in the game with four that stayed on frame; Both teams were tied with nine fouls each, four in the first half and five in the second half.

UP NEXT: With Louisiana's match against Ole Miss, originally scheduled for Aug. 27 cancelled, the Cajuns will have to wait till next Friday, Sep. 1 to return to action. On that day, they make the trip to Southeastern Louisiana for a match that'll start at 7 p.m.

They then finish the weekend off at home, hosting the Northwestern State Lady Devils on Aug. 3 with a 6 p.m. start at Ragin' Cajuns Soccer/Track Complex.

Texas Comes from Behind to Beat Little Rock
LITTLE ROCK – The Trojans struck first, but it was the Longhorns who struck last at Mike A. Myers Stadium on Friday night.

Little Rock took an early 1-0 lead over their Big 12 Conference foe on a Doro Greulich goal, but Texas scored the next two goals for a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over the Trojans.

Greulich's strike came just 11 minutes into the game and was the first shot of the contest for either team. A long throw-in from Bergros Ásgeirsdóttir landed on the head of Arola Aparicio, who nudged the ball over the Texas defense to Greulich. With the ball at her feet, Greulich buried the ball in the bottom left corner of the net for a 1-0 lead. Ásgeirsdóttir and Aparicio were given assists for the all-international goal.

The Trojan defense kept the Longhorns away from goal with Texas not even taking its first shot until the 29th minute. But in the 38th minute, the home team tied the game at 1-1 on a Kayra Dollas goal. They took that 1-1 score into halftime.

Early in the second half, Texas took the lead for the first time with a Haley Berg goal. The goal followed three straight Longhorn corner kicks as Texas kept the pressure up. Berg and teammate Cyera Hintzen connected on a passing play that resulted in the goal.

Megan Swanson had a career-high six saves in the loss. Quin Wilkes, Lisa Ryan, Liesa Seifert, Greulich, Ásgeirsdóttir and Swanson played all 90 minutes.

Little Rock is back at the Coleman Sports & Recreation Complex on Sunday afternoon, facing Missouri State. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.