MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - The College of Charleston women's soccer team downed Charleston Southern, 3-1, in the teams' season opener in front of 362 fans at Patriots Point on Friday evening.

The Cougars dominated possession in a chippy, physical contest which saw a nearly-evenly split 21 fouls called.

CofC dominated the shot statistics with a 20-7 shot margin including an 11-1 advantage in the second half. The Cougars put eight shots on frame compared to the Lady Bucs' three.

Sarah Schaidle (Simpsonville, S.C.), Haley Hutchens (Irmo, S.C.) and McCallie Jones (Charlotte, N.C.) were the Cougars' goal scorers.

In the 28th minute, Hannah Gmerek (Anderson, S.C.) sent a long ball into the box which was run on to by Schaidle. Schaidle collected the ball around the 18-yard line and took a touch before capitalizing past CSU keeper Amy Arroyo.

The Cougars saw several more quality chances in the opening period but took the 1-0 lead into the halftime break.

"From the outset, we had a pretty good foot on the pedal and had control of the match and scored a great goal," said head coach Christian Michner. "We were able to go into the break 1-0 and felt pretty good about ourselves. But give Charleston Southern plenty of credit, they are a very well coached team. They work hard and they make it difficult and we had our work cut out for us today."

In the 56th minute, CofC padded its lead when Hutchens volleyed a ball over Arroyo and into the net. The shot was through a scrambling crowd in the box with an assist coming from Lindsay Frey (Cincinnati, Ohio).

CSU responded minutes later, however, when Chelsea Phillips controlled the ball in the right-hand side of the box and beat a defender on the dribble before blasting a shot across the goal mouth and into the far-side netting, cutting CofC's lead to 2-1.

The Cougars maintained composure despite seeing their lead cut in half and thwarted CSU's remaining attacks at net.

Jones added the 88th-minute insurance goal after she collected a beautifully-threaded ball from Hope Atkinson (Rumson, N.J.), beat a pair of Lady Buc defenders with a set of precise dribbles and slid the ball past the charging keeper.

The Cougars take to the road to face Kennesaw State on Friday, Aug. 26 at 7 p.m. The Cougars will seek vengeance for last season's high-scoring match went back-and-forth before the Owls netted an 86th minute goal to escape with a 4-3 victory at Patriots Point.