Soccer off to impressive start

The East Carolina University Women’s Soccer team has had a great start to their season after competing in four games establishing a 2-0-2 record.

The Pirates have proven to not only be able to defend home field effectively, but they also have proven to find a way to bounce back, whether to win in the end or make the game end in a draw. Home field advantage brings teams that extra momentum which seems to put them over the edge. The two road matchups have shown how resilient ECU really is as a team. After finishing last season 6-10-2, the Pirates look to bring this level of momentum into every matchup as they look to have a better season.

Posting a 2-0-0 record at home has definitely shown that ECU looks to put their 4-3-2 home record from last season behind them. The Pirates started off last season 2-0 at home as well and 2-0 on the road. When conference play began, ECU struggled to capitalize and win at home. The matchup against No. 16 ranked NC State University showed how much better the team has gotten in the offseason.

"We know that we have to be the team that works our opponents to be successful," head coach Jason Hamilton said in a interview with ecupirates.com. "On the road against a nationally ranked opponent, it was great to see our girls fight back and even create a couple chances later in the game."

When they matched up with the Wolfpack, the Pirates took on their toughest opponent of the year. On top of the game with NC State, ECU also has managed to matchup with Radford University and Davidson University really well, managing to outscore them by a combined score of 7-2.

In their past matchup against Davidson, ECU had to prove it could bounce back and make halftime adjustments to take the win in the second half 2-1.

After not having an ideal start to the game, giving up the first goal in the 28th minute of the first half, the Pirates knew they had to turn things around. That in turn helped them finish the job after sophomore defender Kim Sanford tied the game for ECU. Sanford was also huge in the Pirates getting the game-winning goal after she won a header which set up a breakaway for junior forward Jenna Dages that resulted in ECU going up 2-1 and in the end getting the win.

Against their most anticipated non-conference opponent of the season in the Wolfpack, the Pirates proved they could compete against one of the nation’s best in one of their road matchups.

Much like other matchups so far this season, ECU fell behind early when it gave up the first goal of the game for NC State in the 15th minute of the game. The Pirates responded in the 35th minute of the half with the tying goal, and both teams had opportunities in the second half to take the lead, but some shots that were just off. ECU and the Wolfpack played great defense on top of that keeping the other from scoring, making the game end with a 1-1 tie.

Looking at games such as the one against Radford, the Pirates have the capability to take off from the beginning of the game and never look back. Defensively, ECU has been strong through the first four games.

This team has managed to turn things around so far, but when conference play begins, that will determine how good the Pirates really are this season. ECU will look to bring its momentum into Thursday as they hit the road for a weekday matchup against the University of Richmond with the match set to begin at 7:30 p.m.