NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Four Virginia Wesleyan College rookies recorded their intercollegiate scoring debuts on Sunday to help steer the women's soccer Marlins to a 3-0 victory over Averett University's Panthers.

Alexia Vassiliadis (Somerset, N.J./Edison Bishop George Ahr), Katie Roberts (Alexandria/Thomas A. Edison), and Maddie Sanders (Midlothian/Midlothian) scored a goal each for the Marlins, and Lauren Shular (Fairfield, Ohio/Fairfield) and Sanders came through for assists, as the four frosh provided all of VWC's scoring in the Captains Classic hosted by Christopher Newport University.

Vassiliadis put the Marlins in the lead when she scored in front of the net, off Shular's assist, in the 44th minute.  The Marlins, who snapped a three-game losing streak, rode the lead through the halftime break and into the early minutes of the second half when Roberts came through with a shot and score from the left side.  Sanders assisted on that score in the 54th minute.

Sanders also took the scoring spotlight alone in the 76th minute, slipping past a defender to get the ball into the net for the 3-0 lead.

VWC controlled the tempo of the game from the start and outshot the Panthers 14-5, including 10-4 in the first half.  The Marlins also finished with a 7-0 advantage in corner kicks.

Sophomore Megan Gerhart (Lansdale, Pa./North Penn) played in goal for the Marlins for 67:28 and recorded two saves, before Tiffany Lennon (Carrollton/Smithfield) entered to finish the game.  Ashley Jones recorded four saves in 90 minutes for Averett.

The victory enabled VWC to finish 1-1 in the tournament, following a tough 1-0 loss to New Jersey's Kean University 24 hours earlier.  Once again VWC dominated the game, outshooting the Cougars 14-3 and rolling up a 12-0 advantage in corner kicks.  But, KU found the back of the goal on a shot by Sam Marchetti in the 13th minute and made it stick the rest of the way. Gerhart made one save for the Marlins and KC Nunez finished with seven for Kean.

Virginia Wesleyan competes again on Wednesday, Sept. 10, at 8 p.m. at Christopher Newport University.

--AMDG--