The soccer team lost to #18 Wake Forest 4-1 during its season opener Friday night at the Auburn Soccer Complex.
Freshman forward Chelsea Gandy-Cromer from Norcross, Ga., scored the only goal for the Tigers with the assist from her fellow freshman forward Tatiana Coleman.
"We said our freshmen were going to add some excitement up top and you saw that tonight and we hope that's a little picture of a lot of good things to come in the future," said Karen Hoppa, head coach of the team.
The Tigers trailed 1-0 at half time with a goal scored by Wake Forest's Merisa Park.
The game remained 1-0 until Katie Stengal, of Wake Forest, scored the first of her two goals for the night which was matched five minutes later by a goal from Gandy-Cromer bringing the score to 2-1.
"It's a tough loss, Wake Forest is a great opponent, but we were definitely prepared so it's always hard to handle that when you go into a game confident...but we're gonna bounce back," said Lydia Townsend, senior from Enterprise, Ala.
Wake Forest continued to take shots during the rest of the second half with Stengal receiving her second goal and Jackie McSalley scored the fourth goal for Wake Forest closing the game at 4-1.
"We out-played them for the most part as far as general soccer except for in the final third where they put seven of their nine shots on frame and we only had four of our 11. That was the difference. They were clinical and professional in their finishing and we weren't," Hoppa said.
The season opener produced quite a turnout with 1,811 fans in attendance, making this the fourth-largest crowd in the history of the Auburn Soccer Complex.
Auburn's next match will be Friday, August 26 at home against Middle Tennessee State at 7 p.m.
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