Aggressiveness is expected in soccer.
Violence — not so much.
Nevertheless, collisions filled the Penn State women's soccer team's trip to the Nike Carolina Classic. The Nittany Lions got off on the right foot Friday night with 5-1 a victory over Duke. Unfortunately, they could not duplicate this domination yesterday when they dropped a battle with top-ranked host North Carolina 3-0. This brought Penn State's season record to 2-2.
Leading the offensive charge was two-time All-American Christie Welsh, who scored a hat trick against the Blue Devils. Welsh was named to the All-Tournament team for the second time in as many weeks.
"She's an intimidating force," said goalkeeper Emily Oleksiuk. "When she's running her hardest no one can keep up with her. . . with her coming down on a person one-on-one, she believes she can score."
Welsh scored her first goal early against the Blue Devils, putting back a ricochet at 9:26. Duke struck back at 17:12, when Sarah Pickens scored after Penn State defender Gillian Samuel lost the ball in front of the goal.
The Lions pulled ahead when Stephanie Smith scored off a Heidi Drummond assist following a Bonnie Young corner kick. Once in the lead, Penn State did not look back, adding goals by Megan Mills and Welsh within 1:49 of one another late in the first half.
After sitting down to give freshman Brooke Mertz a few minutes of playing time, Welsh completed the sixth hat trick of her career off a feed from Tamara Johnson.
"I think (Welsh) did a good job of finishing her opportunities," said Penn State coach Paula Wilkins. "She was more athletic than their back line and she got behind them."
Even after the game was out of the Blue Devils' grasp, fouls occurred and free kicks were being awarded liberally.
The violence did not subside against Carolina, culminating in a collision that knocked Samuel out of the game early in the second half with a rolled left ankle. She sat out last season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. X-rays will be preformed this morning.
"That's (physical play) to be expected when playing North Carolina," Oleksiuk said. "We knew to beat them we would need to win airballs, and that often involves foulin. They're fast, athletic and physical, and I think we matched up well with them."
Samuel's exit was the beginning of the end for the Lions, who trailed 1-0 after a goal by Alyssa Ramsey 16:24 into the first half.
Shortly thereafter, Leslie Gaston slipped a ball past Oleksiuk. The Heels tacked on one more score late in the second period by Maggie Tarmecka that closed out the Lions.
Putting a vicious opening stretch on the road behind them, Penn State now looks forward to Thursday's home opener against James Madison.
