ORANGEBURG, S.C. (Oct. 25th) - During the final conference game of her career, the Hornets lone senior Ashlee Gourdine put away the first goal of her season and the fifth of her career as Delaware State would finish with a 1-1 draw against the South Carolina State Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium in Orangeburg.
Both teams would play through a scoreless first half rather even, with both teams taking five shots that all went unfulfilled. Gourdine would light the scoreboard in the 64th minute, nodding in an unassisted header for her first of the season and fifth of her Hornet career. The Bulldogs would find level terms just 10 minutes from full time, when Brook Ehinger's shot to the right of DSU (1-14-1, 0-5-1 Great West) keeper Courtney Haas found the net, the service provided by Sasha Bender.
Throughout the last half hour DSU's backline, led by Gourdine, was stalwart and able to deny a winner to SCSU (8-6-2, 2-2-1 Great West). Ten shots by the Bulldogs in the two overtime periods failed to score, with seven missing the target, and the other three stopped by Haas.
With the result, head coach Nitan Soni garnered the first point for Delaware State as a member of the Great West Conference. "The defense had a large part to do with our result today," said the second year head coach. "They were organized and disciplined and kept us in the game Hopefully this result will give us some momentum heading into Senior Night and the Great West Tournament. We scored first and were in control of the game. It was a good reward for the hard work."
DSU's final regular season match will be Senior Day on Thursday at 7 p.m. vs. Wilmington at Alumni Stadium, which will honor today's only goal scorer Gourdine, the only senior on the Hornet squad. Live stats will be available on dsuhornets.com.
