Sep. 4—HIGH POINT — Extending its streak of failing to score in the first half of any match this season, the High Point University women's soccer team fell behind early and never recovered Sunday.

East Carolina's Pirates scored twice, both on rebounds, before the halftime break, added a goal on a header off a corner kick in the second half and sailed to a 3-1 victory at Vert Stadium.

The victory was the fourth straight for the Pirates (4-1-1) this season and the eighth in nine matches against HPU since 2001.

"We've got to come out of the box faster and today, I think we did do that," HPU head coach Aaron McGuiness said. "What you've got to look at is we've faced a lot of good teams. Early on when you;ve got two good teams, they are matched up pretty well. From our point of view is that we can maintain that and push forward. What it's showing is that in the second half, we can maintain that and push forward and start to dominate the game. But it's the lapses in concentration that have caused the most amount of grief in the first half."

HPU (1-2-3), which had a 12-9 advantage in shots and one more shot on goal, notched its lone score when Bri Davis split two defenders near the corner kick area on the right and sent in a cross that Lilly Neubauer headed into the net with 31:39 left in the second half.

The Pirates broke a scoreless tie at the end of a sequence that began with a shot from the left near the sideline. HPU keeper Ellyn Casto headed it out of the goal but the ball was deflected and Lindsey Aiken headed it past Casto with 11:13 left in the first half.

ECU made it 2-0 with 4:10 left in the half when a shot was blocked and the ball was collected by Ella Steck, who ripped a shot into the net. The Pirates countered HPU's second half goal when Juliana Vera lifted a well-placed corner kick that was headed into the net by Jazmin Ferguson, who led ECU with two shots on goal.

The Panthers play at Wofford today and at Maryland-Baltimore County on Thursday.

MEN'S SOCCER

HIGH POINT — Tony Pineda scored the go-ahead goal and the High Point University men's soccer team went on to its first victory of the season as it held off Evansville on Friday at Vert Stadium.

Alex Abril sent a throw-in into the box and it bounced enough that Pineda headed it into the net.

Finn McRobb put the Panthers (1-0-1) on the board in the eighth minute as he controlled a rebound off the keeper and blasted it into the right bottom of the net.

Evansville netted the equalizer in the 43rd minute.

HPU enjoyed a 12-4 advantage in shots and a 7-1 edge in corner kicks. Panther keeper Justin Stewart grabbed four saves.

VOLLEYBALL

WEST POINT — High Point University posted a four-set victory over host Army West Point on Saturday as play wrapped up in the Army Invitational. The Panthers (3-3) won the first set 25-15, lost the second 23-25, took the third 25-23 and pulled away in the fourth 25-14.

Freshman middle blocker Eve Wilson led HPU with a season-high 11 kills for a .529 hit percentage. Dylan Maberry added 10 while Christine Graf and Jayde Shelton had seven each. High Point took advantage of Army's 35 hitting errors to the Panthers' 20.

Allie Gray dished 28 assists while Kea Whillock lifted 11 digs.

HPU plays at Wofford today.

CROSS COUNTRY

ELON — High Point University's cross country teams registered a pair of second place finishes as they opened the season.

Hunter Steinau led the way with a ninth- place finish (17:55.7) as the Panther men ended with 65 points as Duke swept the top six and totalled 15 points.

Other counting runners were Jake Tarosky (18:11.7), Reuben Kosche (18:13.4), Jake Fiorillo (18.23.5) and Ian Miller (18:27.1)

As in the men's race, Duke swept the top six spots and finished with 15 points. High Point took the next five spots among runners who contributed to team scores and wound up with 45 points.

Brianna Malone led the Panthers with a run of 13:33.5 in her collegiate debut. She was followed by Katie Taylor (13:39), Paris Stankewich (13:45.3), Elizabeth Ritter (13:54.1) and Anna Ritter (13:55.9)