The William Peace University Women’s Soccer team secured a historic win over NC Wesleyan on Oct. 9. The team secured their second conference win with a score of 2-0 and are now currently 6-6-1 on the season and 2-1-0 in conference play.
Not only was this the first time in history that Peace has beat NC Wesleyan in women’s soccer, but it was also the team’s second conference win in the past three years. Furthermore, this makes their sixth win of the season which ties the past record.
“It was definitely a big win for us [and] for the program,” said Head Coach Reid Clewis. “Last night was kind of one of the big pieces of showing them that the hard work they’re putting in is actually going to work.”
After a long and scoreless first half of the game, the score was still tied 0-0. The Bishops had more opportunities to score as they outshot the Pacers 8-2 in the first half, although they did not score.
However, during the second half is when things started to look up for the Pacers. They began to connect better on the field and outshot the Bishops 4-3, and eventually scored two goals and won.
It was only 11 minutes into the second half when freshman midfielder Raine Greene scored the first goal from outside of the box. This was her 11th goal of the season and she is now the program’s record holder of most goals scored in a single season.
“I’m really proud because my family isn’t able to watch the games in person,” said Greene. “When I first signed to come to this program, I told my parents I would try my best to make a difference on the team. Winning these goals makes me feel like I’m actually doing what I said I was going to do.”
Greene is now second in the USA South conference for goals scored in a season. She is also first in the conference for most game winning goals with four so far.
“Raine works extremely hard and she is extremely driven,” said Coach Clewis. “I think breaking the single season goal scoring record is a direct testament to those two things.”
Not only did the team as a whole break several records with this win, but it was an effort made by almost entirely freshmen. Freshman midfielder Kyra Delaney scored her first goal of the season to make the score 2-0.
“We’re an extremely young team, we started seven freshmen last night,” said Coach Clewis. “A good thing for us is that what we’re building now we’ll have the same thing for two years, we don’t have any seniors.”
The team is confident that they will continue to improve and secure more wins in the USA South Conference.
“When we started the year, our team goal was to make the conference tournament and that win last night kind of puts us in a very strong position to do that,” said Coach Clewis. “Not just making the tournament, but winning that first game and trying to get into the later rounds.”
Coming up, the team travels to Fayetteville, NC on Oct 12. to play Methodist University at 6pm. The next home game is scheduled for Oct. 19 at 2pm at their home field at WakeMed Soccer Park.
For the latest updates, visit GoPeacePacers.com or visit the athletics social media accounts @GoPeacePacers.