AIKEN - The Newberry Lady Indians opened their season on the road Thursday night, coming away with a 2-1 victory over the USC Aiken Lady Pacers to start the season on the right note.

Despite rainy weather resulting in an hour and 20 minute delay to the 7:00 PM starting time of both sides season opener, a strong crowd of 165 came out to see the Lady Pacers (0-1-0) battle Newberry College (1-0-0) in a non-conference match-up.  The Lady Indians tallied two second half goals en route to the 2-1 victory. 

Dominating defense and ineffective offensive play in the first half had the two teams combining to register just three shots on goal.  In the second half, however, both squads started to find their marks as 10 total shots converted to three goals. 

Inga Woiwode (El Paso, Texas) chipped the ball over the head of USC Aiken goalkeeper Heather Hall after receiving a nice feed from Alie Brady (Summerville) to break the scoreless tie in the 53rd minute of play. 

Brooke Tumblin (Florence) capitalized on a rebound of an Elizabeth Jones (Anchorage, Alaska) shot in front with Hall out of the net to bang home the winner and make it 2-0 in Newberry's favor with 30 minutes to play.

But USC Aiken wouldn't fade away easily and the Lady Pacers got on the board in the 67th minute when Jennifer Johnsen put one past keeper Danielle Beckerle (St. Louis, Mo.) off a poor clearance of Natasha DaCosta's corner kick to draw within one. 

Inside of eight minutes remaining, USC Aiken had one final chance to knot things up, but a cross in from Jennifer Goodwin from the right wing just missed two different Lady Pacers in front. 

Hall recorded three saves for the Lady Pacers while Beckerle, a preseason All-SAC keeper for Newberry, stopped four shots. 

Even though the Lady Indians opened the season with a win, head coach Juan Pablo Favero noted his team left areas to improve upon.

"We still have a long way to go if we expect to reach our objectives," Favero said. "We always seem to struggle with the season opener, but a positive is we got the result. We played well enough for a few moments to get that result but it has to be more consistent and better play after this."

"Also, a lot of credit goes to USC Aiken. They have improved a lot since we played them last season, from recruiting to the play on the field. They're doing a good job," Favero added.

Newberry will open the home portion of the schedule on Tuesday when they welcome the Pfeiffer Falcons to town. Kickoff will be at 4 p.m.