By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Elon’s men’s soccer team preserved its unbeaten status by surviving Wake Forest’s strong push in a 1-1 non-conference draw Tuesday night in Winston-Salem.
No. 10 Elon (6-0-1) entered the week as one of three Division I teams nationally without a loss or tie.
It has been a memorable stretch for the Phoenix after an historic comeback a few days earlier.
Against Wake Forest, Elon’s Colin Veltri scored in a fifth consecutive game with his goal in the eighth minute at Spry Stadium.
The Demon Deacons (2-2-3) pulled even on Babacar Niang’s goal with about 10 minutes remaining. Wake Forest finished with a 14-2 advantage in shots on goal.
Goalkeeper Tomasz Wroblewski made a career-high 13 saves for Elon.
It was the first game after the Phoenix pulled off the largest comeback in Elon’s Division I era by rallying from a three-goal deficit in the final 25 minutes to win 4-3 against host Delaware in Saturday afternoon’s Coastal Athletic Association game.
Veltri notched the first Elon goal and teammate Scott Vatne scored off a free kick. Jahmir Flowers tied the score with the team’s third goal in a span of less than six minutes.
Veltri’s second tally of the game with 9:21 remaining was the game winner. Victor Stromsten assisted on the final two goals as Elon moved to 2-0 in CAA play.
There were two ejections from the Elon team. The Phoenix played the last 20-plus minutes a man down following Majaliwa Msabaha’s ejection in addition to an earlier ejection from the team’s bench.
Elon plays its CAA home opener at noon Saturday vs. Stony Brook.
Women’s soccer
Elon stayed unbeaten with Sunday night’s 0-0 draw with visiting High Point at Rudd Field.
Freshman goalkeeper Kate Bisgrove of Elon made four saves.
The Phoenix (5-0-1) finished non-conference play undefeated for the first time under coach Neil Payne. The Phoenix opens CAA play Sunday at Northeastern.
Women’s golf
The second day of the Elon Invitational was called off early in Tuesday’s round because of weather conditions at Alamance Country Club in Burlington.
With the final round not completed, the results stood from when the first and second rounds were contested Monday.
Charleston Southern was the top team at 23-over-par 591, one stroke ahead of Elon and North Carolina A&T among the 14 teams. Elon had fallen 12 strokes behind in the last round, though teams had completed various numbers of holes before play was halted.
Appalachian State (595) was fourth and North Carolina Central was fifth (597).
Elon’s Ashley Lafontaine shot rounds of 1-under 70 and 74 to sit at 2-over and third for third place. N.C. A&T’s Ekaterina Prokhorova was at 4 under.
Volleyball
Elon (6-5) will begin CAA play with matches at noon Saturday and 1:00 p.m. Sunday against College of Charleston at Schar Center.
The Phoenix won two of three matches last week at the Mercer Invitational. The Phoenix fell in straight sets to Mercer before topping Presbyterian and Southern Mississippi in a pair of five-set outcomes.
