Charlotte women defeat Richmond

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Two early goals from Whitney Weinraub led Charlotte’s women’s soccer team to a 4-0 victory over the Richmond Spiders and extended their unbeaten streak against Atlantic 10 opponents to 23 games in the process. With the shutout, the 49ers extended their shutout streak to six games and pushed their opponents scoreless streak to 563 minutes both of which are program records. The Niners moved to 12-2-1 on the season and 6-0-1 in league play, while Richmond dropped to 8-6-1 on the year and 4-2 in A-10 play.

Goals by Hailey Beam and Jenna McKeon piled onto Charlotte’s scoring advantage both of which came in the second half. McKeon’s goal was her fourth of the season and Beam’s was the eighth of the year and 37th of her career, which is two away from tying Courtney Cook’s school record of 36 goals.

“We knew coming in that this was going to be a tricky game for us since we just came back from fall break this week,” stated head coach John Cullen. “However we answered the opening bell and came out with two goals in the first few minutes to really give our team a boost.”

Weinraub’s first goal came off a pass from Beam near midfield that set up the junior forward with a breakaway chance against Richmond’s goalkeeper Melissa Pacheco. Weinraub dribbled past Pacheco and shot the ball into the open net to give Charlotte the early 1-0 lead.

Weinraub struck again only 39 seconds later this time coming from a Kirby Stenard pass to Oni Bernard, who crossed the ball to Weinraub in front of the net. The Holland, Pa. native easily notched her second goal of the game and team leading 11th goal of the season.

With a 2-0 lead at halftime, Charlotte also held a 8-1 shot advantage over the visiting Spiders.

The scoring continued for Charlotte in the 53rd minute when Beam scored off a long pass from Katie Davies that set up the senior center midfielder up for a one-on-one situation with Pacheco. Beam easily defeated Pacheco in the matchup by placing the ball under the diving keeper into the middle of the goal.

The Niner shutout streak nearly came to an end in the 65th minute when Richmond was awarded a penalty kick after a foul in the penalty area by Charlotte. However, Kristen Stalter missed the opportunity by hitting the crossbar keeping Charlotte’s lead at 3-0.

“Our overall team mentality is to really keep a clean sheet, while still scoring goals and that was shown by how excited our players were after Richmond missed the penalty kick,” said Cullen. “We are taking pride in not allowing goals right now.”

Eleven minutes later, the 49ers added their final goal of the game when McKeon received a pass from Leah Zappone and shot a rocket from 25 yards out into the upper right hand corner to push the lead to 4-0.

Lauren Brown recorded the shutout for the Niners, her sixth of the season, by making two saves in the contest.

“It has been an overall team effort for us to keep our opponents scoreless because coach Cullen meet with the offense today before the game and said that our defense starts with them and the tone that they set offensively,” junior defender Katie Davies mentioned of the shutout streak. “Our defense is the backbone of our team and we have to make sure that we come out every game ready to go.”

The 49ers will get another chance at a clean sheet on Sunday, when they take on the Colonials of George Washington at Transamerica Field at 1 p.m. Charlotte is 3-0 all-time against GWU and defeated the Colonials 3-0 in last year’s match. The game will also serve as Senior Day for the four Charlotte seniors; Hailey Beam, Lauren Brown, Leah Zappone and Nicole Mercer.