<p><span style="font-size: small;"><strong>MT. PLEASANT, S.C.</strong> &ndash; The College of Charleston women&rsquo;s soccer team opened its regular season campaign with a 2-1 loss to UNC Charlotte at Patriots Point on Saturday evening.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">The Cougars were the more possessive and perhaps better team for most of the match but back-to-back UNCC second-half goals wiped away the Cougars&rsquo; first-half lead.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">&ldquo;I&rsquo;m pleased with the effort tonight,&rdquo; said head coach Christian Michner. &ldquo;Our girls came out and battled for 90 minutes and really wanted the result. Certainly we&rsquo;re disappointed in losing the match. Charlotte is a very good team and is very well coached.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">&ldquo;They weren&rsquo;t necessarily concerned with whether their play was pretty or not. They wanted to be effective and if we could take something away from the match, it&rsquo;d be that. We need to not worry about making a pretty pass or starting an attractive run, but instead focus on being effective and consistent.&rdquo;</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">The Cougars got off to a bit of a slow start and struggled to connect passes in the early minutes. The team settled in, however, and played a crisper brand of soccer through the rest of the first half to gain and maintain possessions in the middle and offensive thirds of the field. &nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">With just over a minute remaining in the first half, the Cougars broke the scoreless draw with Sarah Cardamone&rsquo;s (Downingtown, Pa.) first goal of the season. Maryam Buazza (Katy, Texas) played a long ball over the 49er defense which fell to Cardamone who was one-on-one with the keeper. Cardamone was able to coral the ball away from the charging keeper and rolled it into the back of the net.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">The Cougars outshot UNCC, 7-4, in the first 45 minutes. CofC ended the match with a 12-10 advantage in shots and put seven on the frame. The Cougars also produced five corner kicks opposed to UNCC&rsquo;s two.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">UNCC came out more aggressively in a physically contested second half which brought on 13 total fouls in the 45 minutes.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">In the 69^th minute, Taylor Rovito played a ball across the top of the 18-yard box where Amanda Jones tucked it in to the bottom right-hand corner to equalize the match.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">Five minutes later, Rovito again picked up an assist on UNCC&rsquo;s go-ahead goal, this time threading a pass through the left side of the field to Sara Trexler who gathered it in stride and scored to the far-side netting.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">In the dying minutes of the match, the Cougars produced three consecutive corner-kick chances but none were fruitful as the clock ultimately expired and finalized the 2-1 score.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;">The Cougars return to action when they head to Conway, S.C., to take on Western Michigan on Friday, Aug. 24 at 5 p.m. as part of the Coastal Carolina Tournament.</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>