NEWBERRY - Thanks to a well-balanced attack and strong defense, the Newberry College women's soccer team grounded the Erskine College Flying Fleet with a 1-0 shutout and remains undefeated to start the season.

The script for Newberry (3-0-0) remained the same against Erskine (0-2-0) as the team's previous win against USC Aiken—a 1-0 victory marked by a stalwart defensive effort, solid goalkeeping and timely second-half scoring. The script for the season, however, has no parallel. The 3-0 record marks the first time in Newberry women's soccer history that a team has won its first three games to start the year.

“I'm proud of the direction we're going,” said Newberry head coach Karrie Miller. “Our mission from day one has been to get better every day, but we still have a lot of work to do.”

Newberry only scored once, but it wasn't for a lack of shots. The scarlet and gray outshot Erskine 23 to 4, and 13 of those shots counted as shots on goal.

Newberry began the game by putting pressure on the Flying Fleet, forcing Erskine goalkeeper Paige Martz to make her first save on a Meagen Heney (Ajax, Ontario, Canada) shot two minutes into the match. Heney almost found the net in the 17th minute, but the ball glanced off the post and kept the game scoreless. Heney lead the team in shots with five and shots on goal with three.

Martz made seven saves in the first half for Erskine as both teams battled to get on the scoreboard. Newberry recorded 14 shots, but entered the halftime break tied with Erskine at 0-0.

The second half began in similar fashion to the first, with Newberry testing the Erskine defense and putting shots on goal. With the match still scoreless, Ashley Reetz (Summerville, S.C.) took a ball off of an Erskine defender at the top of the penalty area and launched a shot, which bounced off Maize's hands and into the left side of the net to give Newberry a 1-0 lead. The score marks Reetz's first collegiate goal.

Reetz almost notched her third point of the game when she served a cross close to the goal for Jesse Langdon (Raleigh, N.C.), who put it in to add an apparent goal to Newberry's lead with 19 minutes left to play. A linesman deemed that Newberry was offside, however, and the goal did not count.

For the rest of the second half, Newberry missed several scoring opportunities and survived one key chance from Erskine. A charging Lindsay Patterson played a ball that beat Newberry goalkeeper Emily Rhoades (Buckley, Wash.), who came out to the top of the penalty area to challenge the Erskine forward, but Patterson was unable to corral the ball and Newberry would hold on to the 1-0 lead for the remainder of the match.

The sophomore Rhoades made one save on the day to earn the win. Her record improves to 3-0-0 on the season and the victory marks her second shutout of the year. Last week's blanking of USC Aiken moved her into sole possession of second place all-time in Newberry history with six career shutouts, and Friday's decision means she stands six short of Bobby Gainey's first place record of 13.

Newberry will stay at home for the team's next match on Sunday, September 6 against the University of West Georgia at 4 p.m.

“We were able to create our own opportunities against Erskine, but we needed to convert more of them,” Miller said. “That's something we will have to do more of against West Georgia—they're a tough opponent.”