WATERVILLE, Maine – Senior Allison Ward (Rockland, Maine/Oceanside) and sophomore Tayla Smedberg (Oxford, Maine/Oxford Hills) each scored goals to lead the University of Southern Maine Huskies to a 2-1 win over the Thomas College Terriers Tuesday night at Bernatchez Field.

Playing in their season-opener the Huskies open their 2015 campaign at 1-0. Thomas College falls to 0-1.  Today's meeting was just the second in the series history between the two schools; Southern Maine leads the series 2-0.

The Huskies' took the lead early as Ward netted the first goal of the game just 48 seconds into the contest with an unassisted strike. The goal is the 14th of Ward's career.  The score remained 1-0 in favor of USM through the first half despite the Huskies outshooting the Terriers 10-1 in the period.

The Terriers knotted the score up at 1-1 late in the second half when senior Brooklyn Curry (Belfast, Maine) converted an assist from junior Gabby Martell (Gorham, Maine) in the 61st minute, but Southern Maine's Smedberg secured the Huskies' victory just three minutes later with her third career game-winning goal in the 64th minute.  Smedberg finished an assist from junior Jennifer Poulin (Winslow, Maine) for the pivotal goal.

Junior goalkeeper Amanda Kasbohm (York, Maine) earned the win for the Huskies making five saves. Thomas junior Abbie Charrier (Waldo, Maine/Mt. View) made nine saves in the loss, while junior Erica Blake (Norridgewock, Maine/Skowhegan) was awarded four defensive saves.

Southern Maine remains on the road for its next contest and will face Springfield College on Saturday (11:00 a.m.) as part of the Springfield College Invitational.  Thomas travels to Nichols College on Saturday (1:00 p.m.) for its next contest.

–cac–