Two games, two wins, two shutouts

The women's soccer team had two conference games this week against the Citadel and College of Charleston. The Spartans (8-4-1, 3-0-1) had outscored the Citadel Bulldogs 46-1 in the last 11 years, setting an expectation among the crowd for another Spartan victory.

It did not take long for that expectation to be met, as less than halfway into the first half senior Katelynn Donovan scored her first goal of the night. About 16 minutes later, Lauren Lopez scored off of an assist by Donovan. The Spartans went into the locker room at halftime with a solid 2-0 lead and a convincing offensive performance, with 14 shots attempted as opposed to only one Citadel attempt. However, as the second half went on, it became apparent that the Spartans were not satisfied with their first half performance and wanted to improve upon it.

Jenn Partenheimer scored off of a penalty kick 13 minutes into the second half, and then it was all Katelynn Donovan as the senior scored twice in less than five minutes to finish the dismantling of the Bulldogs. When asked about her performance, Donovan said that "[Coach Radwanski] put me at the top for the first time this season, and it was a great opportunity for me." By the end of the day, the Spartans fired a total of 30 shots at the goal and had piled up a 5-0 victory.

That was the end of the fun and games, however, as another conference opponent came cruising into town: the College of Charleston Cougars. After what may be termed an easy victory, the Spartans were now faced with the Cougars and their 8-2-2 record. Half the field was cloaked in shade at the beginning of the game, with the other half bathed in brilliant sunlight, giving a contrast in light and darkness as the teams started to peck at one another and gauge what was going to work and what was not going to work. It quickly became clear that this was a far more even match than the one against the Citadel, as both teams struggled to find scoring opportunities throughout the entire game. Superb defensive play by both the Cougars and the Spartans managed to foil the few scoring opportunities that did crop up on both sides. It was quite a physical game, as some of the hits (incidental or not) could be heard up in the press box. Someone walking by not knowing there was a soccer game might have thought a rugby match was being held. A spark of offense appeared when Katelynn Donovan punched in what would have been her fourth goal of the week, but unfortunately for the Spartans she was offsides. The two teams battled determinedly, kicking and clawing their way towards the goals, but to no avail. The buzzer sounded to end the first half the way it started, with a 0-0 tie.

The second half saw more of the same as it was almost an exact carbon copy of the first half. There was some excitement towards the end of the second half when Jenn Partenheimer raced down the sideline, beating several defenders, and fired a pass across the box looking for Kelly Attayek in what would have been the go-ahead goal, but Attayek just missed the set-up and could not complete the play. Attayek would find redemption later however. Shortly thereafter, regulation ended and the game went into overtime. Not two minutes into the extra period, Partenheimer wound up moving the ball in again. Eluding defenders, Partenheimer tapped a pass to Attayek, who took it the other direction but then dropped it to Partenheimer, setting Partenheimer up for a shot. Partenheimer fired a shot into the lower left-hand corner of the net, beating Charleston goalie Erin Smith for the game-winner, giving the Spartans their second shut-out win in as many games.

After the game, Partenheimer said, "I just wanted to end the game. I think everyone was tired of playing. It was a great lay-off by Kelly and I couldn't have asked for a better ball … Our team works really well together and everybody gave 110 percent today."

The win adds another game to the Spartans 24-game Southern Conference unbeaten streak and also marks the 99th career win for Coach Radwanski, all coming at UNCG.

Up next, the Spartans have a home game Friday night at 7 p.m. against Western Carolina. Then, Sunday afternoon at 3:30 they take on Appalachian State in Boone.