Box Score

NEWARK, NJ—Madeline Griep scored the first goal of the game and assisted on the second for NJIT in a 3-1 home win for the Highlanders Sunday evening against South Carolina State on Lubetkin Field at Mal Simon Stadium.
 
NJIT (5-9) got goals from three different players—Griep, Abi Fakolujo, and Kylie Jones—as the Highlanders surpassed their 2012 wins total, when they finished 4-13-3.
 
"Our first team goal was to win more games than we did last year," said Mandi Risden, who is in charge of the Highlanders after being an assistant coach with NJIT from 2008 until being named head coach in April this year. "From here we want to get the (NJIT) Division I record for wins (began Division I competition in 2006; best record: 7-9-2 in 2009)."
 
South Carolina State, which won its previous three matches, dropped to 6-7-1 after falling to NJIT. The Lady Bulldogs' goal was scored by Rhea Anne Currie.
 
Jenny Cislo assisted on the Griep goal, which came at 9:37, before Griep fed Fakolujo, who made it 2-0 in the 37th minute. Currie's marker for SC State, assisted by Kaitlynn Cortez, pulled the Lady Bulldogs within a goal at 2-1, 8:37 into the second half. Then Jones gave the Highlanders back their two-goal cushion on a header off of a corner kick by Kaelyn Gamel in the 70th minute.
 
Highlander goalkeeper Samantha Bersett went the distance in goal, notching 5 saves. Her counterpart for South Carolina State, sophomore Haley Austin, posted 3 saves.
 
The shots totals were close, with NJIT having an 11-9 edge in overall shots, as each team put six shots on frame. The corner kicks favored the Highlanders, 8-3, including 7-3 in the second half.
 
NJIT got on the board in the 10th minute when Griep's arcing shot found its way from the left wing outside the box, across the goal mouth, and into the upper right corner. Cislo triggered the scoring play with a long pass in the air out of midfield to Griep, who was free 15 yards from the end line. Griep took a touch to gain control and lobbed the shot inside the far post and under the crossbar.
 
The second Highlander goal, at 36:01, was a text book cross-and-header. Griep, in deep on the left side, sent a cross that had the same effect as a corner kick, finding Fakolujo open at the near post, where the sophomore nodded the ball in.
 
South Carolina State got its goal in the 54th minute. Cortez split the Highlander defense with a pass down the middle to Currie, who carried ahead for a stride and scored on a shot from 15 yards, straight-on.
 
NJIT pushed its lead back to two goals on another header at 69:24. Jones, a junior making her sixth appearance after recovering from a slow-healing injury that had kept her out of spring practice and for much of preseason drills, notched her first 2013 goal, converting Gamel's corner kick. The goal came after a stretch of heavy pressure by the Highlanders that included three corner kicks in the less than four minutes preceding the tally.
 
"It was a good win for us," said Risden, whose team is 4-4 in its last eight contests after a 1-5 start to the schedule. "Now, we have to turn around and face the same team, on the road, on Saturday. Tonight we accomplished our first goal for the season, but we still have a lot more we can accomplish."
 
NJIT will visit South Carolina State in Orangeburg, SC, for the rematch on Saturday at 1 pm.
 
Sunday's win gives the Highlanders a 5-4-1 lead in a series that began in 2007. The programs played as members of the same conference from 2007 to 2012, first in the United Soccer Conference and then in the Great West Conference, a multi-sport grouping that absorbed the women's soccer-only USC in 2009. The Great West ceased operations on July 1 this year, but former members NJIT, South Carolina State, Howard, and Delaware State are playing each other home-and-home in 2013.