Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Faced with taking on a talented SEC opponent in the form of the University of Tennessee in its season opener, the Navy women's soccer team also was tasked with dealing with the effects of a two-plus hour storm that left the pitch at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility waterlogged by the time the delayed 9:00 p.m. kickoff occurred on Friday night. In the face of these tests, the Mids (0-1) showed strongly versus the Volunteers (1-0) and raged a hard-fought battle that saw the host come up short by just a 1-0 margin. A goal by Ariel Kupritz, a sub fresh off the Volunteers bench, in the 57th would hold up as the game-winning tally.

"The effort by our team tonight was really great," remarked head coach Carin Gabarra. "Our team defense stayed very discipline and stayed in the shape that we discussed. I was pleased with how we followed that game plan. We minimized our lapses and played well. We created a couple of chances that we could've capitalized on, but all-in-all the effort and discipline to play our game was very good.

"The weather and field conditions were the same for both teams so it really didn't affect the game as a whole. For a two-hour delay, that was a pretty good game. The quality of play was there and it was an entertaining game as both teams came to play. That was 90 minutes of pretty high-level, high-intensity soccer.

Navy's defense highlighted the team's effort on Friday night as goalkeeper Sydney Fortson (So., Claremont, Calif.) was credited with seven saves, in addition to a handful of breakups on crosses. Her teammates in the central backfield Liza Harris (Sr., Baltimore, Md.) and Alex Jackson (So., Centennial, Colo.), also provided a key hindrance to the Volunteers' offense inside the 18-yard box on a variety of occasions.

Fortson and Harris got into the action of upsetting an explosive Tennessee offense in the opening 25 minutes of the first half as Fortson leapt off her line to intercept a dangerous cross in the 12th minute before Harris slid on the wet turf to deflect a potential one-timer shot in the 25th minute.

Fortson finished the scoreless first half with four saves.

Megan Rogers (Sr., Orange Park, Fla.) had Navy's best scoring opportunity in the first stanza as the senior defender took a free kick from 25-plus yards out and forced Shae Yanez, the Vols' goalkeeper to make the save.

After both teams acclimated themselves to the soggy field conditions over the opening 45 minutes, the second half featured a bit more aggressiveness on offense. Tennessee cashed in on this aggressiveness with the game's first goal at 56:04 by Kupritz.

Trailing 1-0, Navy found some success on offense about 10 minutes later when Meghan Hegarty (Sr., Richmond, Va.) led the Mids on a 4-on-4 fast break in the 67th minute. Unfortunately for the hosts, that initial burst was turned aside, but the ball stayed in Tennessee's defensive third for the majority of the next three minutes. With the pressure on, Navy nearly knotted the score at 1-1 at 68:49 when Jackson ripped a low line drive shot on a free kick from approximately 30 yards out. The shot required Yanez to react quickly at the goal line as the ball snuck through a crowded box of Midshipmen and Volunteer players without deflection.

With Tennessee pressing for an insurance goal in the 85th minute, Jackson came through on the defensive end as she tracked down a streaking Volunteer attacker and cleanly tackled the ball away inside the 18.

Fighting until the end, Navy was unable to find the game-tying goal and the contest would go final by a score of 1-0.

For the game, Tennessee outshot Navy, 20-3 with an 8-2 advantage in shots on goal. The Volunteers attempted five corner kicks versus one for the Mids.

Friday night marked the second half of a home-and-home between the two sides that began in 2015 with a 3-0 victory for Tennessee at home in Knoxville.

"We have some things to improve moving forward," said Gabarra. "Our team shape in defending can be better at times; we can do more to get into recovering spots earlier and we can be better executing in the attacking third."

Navy will continue its opening weekend of competition versus Power 5 schools with a trip to nearby College Park for an intrastate showdown with Maryland. The Mids and Terps will face off at Ludwig Field on Sunday night at 7 p.m.