ROCK HILL, S.C. - Sydney David (Acworth, Ga. / North Paulding H.S.) scored a career-high two goals and Jane Perrin Mayer (Gulfport, Miss. / South Alabama.) netted her first goal of the season, as the Gardner-Webb Women's soccer team (4-5-0, 1-0 BSC) defeated Winthrop (3-4, 0-1 BSC) in its Big South Conference opener on Wednesday night.
This was first win for Gardner-Webb in its conference opener since 2009, when it opened up Big South Play with a 2-0 victory at Winthrop.
Senior Krista Chauvin (Seekonk, Mass. / UMass Dartmouth) was solid in goal all match long for the Runnin' Bulldogs, as she recorded six saves, en route to her second shutout of the season.
Gardner-Webb pushed the pace the entire game, as it outshot Winthrop by a 17-11 margin, and was led individually by Justine Ibarra (Puyallup, Wash. / Puyallup High School), who had a career-high six shots.
The Runnin' Bulldogs saw their first scoring chance of the match, off a corner kick, just 57 seconds into the first half. Jessica Casper (Perkasie, Pa. / Pennridge H.S.) took the corner for GWU, and Ibarra was on the receiving end off the corner, but her shot went just high, and the game would remain scoreless.
David scored the game's first goal in the 27th minute to give Gardner-Webb a 1-0 lead, as Hooe gave a great pass through the Eagles defense to David, who slid it past the keeper to give Gardner-Webb a 1-0 lead.
A little less than two minutes later, Winthrop tried to clear the ball off the goal line, but Mayer got in front of the ball, and deflected the clearing attempt into the goal to give the Runnin' Bulldogs a 2-0 lead, as that would remain the score going into the halftime intermission.
Gardner-Webb came out strong in the second half, as it continued to manufactuer scoring chances in hopes of scoring its third goal of the match.
David was able to find the back of the net for her second goal of the game and the third goal of the match for Gardner-Webb in the 86th minute, as the Runnin' Bulldogs would go on for the 3-0 victory.
Gardner-Webb returns to action on Saturday (Sept. 27) when it travels to High Point for a conference match, which is set for a 2:00 p.m. kickoff.
