Garrison Pulley
Staff Writer
The UNCG women’s soccer team’s season came to a disappointing end on Saturday night, when the Spartans played Furman and the game resulted in a 1-0 loss to end their season. This loss would take place in the first round of the Southern Conference Tournament. The UNCG women’s team ended the season with a 7-11-2 record overall and a 4-4-1 record through conference play. This record would land them the fifth seed in the conference standings.
The Spartan’s longest winning streak of the season was only two games, which happened twice in the season. While the team’s longest losing streak ends up being an astounding six games, this spanned from September 4-25. That kind of losing stretch can cause a lot of issues within the team and can really demoralize the team and losing six games straight is hard to come back from. However, the Spartans did end the regular season winning four of their last eight games of the season prior to eventually lose in the first round of the playoffs.
The top goal scorer for the Blue and Gold is Melanie Spensiero, a 5’7” junior midfielder out of Rancho Santa Margarita, California with five goals and one assist on the season. She also totaled 25 shots, ten of them on target. The team seemed to lean on her in the clutch situations where out of the five goals she scored three of them were game winners. The team’s leading assister was Diarra Simmons a 5’9” senior forward out of Toronto, Ontario and Melissa Canizalez a 5’4” senior defender out of Las Vegas, Nevada, both players ended the season with two assists.
The Spartans goalkeeper, Chloe Buehler, a 5’7” redshirt junior out of Perrysburg, Ohio played and started in all 20 games of the season. She had a total of 104 saves, an 82.5 save percentage, averaged 1.08 goals per game, and conceded 22 goals on the season. Along with all those stats she had a total of six shutouts on the season which is a pretty solid number. She shut out her opponent in six of the seven wins the Spartans had throughout the season, showing that if the goalkeeper is playing well it boosts the confidence of the rest of the team. The only other goalkeeper to make an appearance in a game is 5’8” sophomore out of Southlake, Texas, Jamie Phelps. She played in two games (didn’t start either one) for a total of 25 minutes and 25 seconds, and had one save in that time.
With the team’s statistics the UNCG goals by period count is five goals in the first half and 13 in the second and zero goals in overtime. While allowing 12 goals in the first half, two goals in the second and three goals in overtime. Which brings the team’s goals total at 18, and their opponent’s goal total at 22; a four goal difference for the Spartans. The Spartans’ leader with shots and shots on goal is 5’7” freshman forward out of Henderson, Nevada, Cienna Rideout who had a total of 37 shots, 22 of those shots on target.
The game high on the season for goals scored in a game by a single player is two. The first player on the team to do it was Caylin Prillaman, a 5’3” sophomore forward out of High Point, NC, on August 21 vs. Tennessee Tech. The second player to do it was Diarra Simmons on October 2 vs. Furman. And the last player to do it for the season was Cienna Rideout on October 14 vs. The Citadel. The game high for saves in a game was nine, by Chloe Buehler on September 2 vs. Army West Point. On the team as a whole the most goals scored in a game is four goals on October 2 vs. Furman. While the opponents game high for goals was 5 on September 4 vs. Hofstra.
The women’s soccer season has come to a disappointing end with a first round playoffs loss, but the team and fans should be optimistic about the next season as the team is full of enthusiastic young players. Out of the roster only five players are seniors and 12 are freshman — one of those freshman being the leading shot taker this season: Cienna Rideout.
It’s been a fun season for the Spartans and we all can’t wait for the next season to begin!
Categories: Sports, Uncategorized
THE CAROLINIAN 
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