June 24, 2002

ATLANTA, Ga.--The Atlanta Beat seems to have a hex on the San Jose CyberRays in the regular season, and it maintained it Saturday night with a 2-1 victory over the CyberRays at Herndon Stadium.

It was the CyberRays' second 2-1 loss to Atlanta this season, but a far different type of game than the one at Spartan Stadium on May 18 in which they outshot Atlanta 22-10 with a 12-8 edge in shots on goal.

Former NC State star Charmaine Hooper scored her sixth goal of the season for Atlanta, which now is 4-0-1 against the CyberRays in their regular-season series.

Hooper scored 19 minutes into the match when Sharolta Nonen played a long ball into the right corner of the penalty box that Cagle headed to Hooper just outside the goalmouth.

Later, Hooper recorded an assist on Cindy Parlow's goal in the 36th minute to make the score 2-0 Atlanta.

"Julie (Augustyniak) and I have really been focusing on our services to the forwards because we have probably two of the best people in the box [Hooper and Parlow], so all we have to do is get it there, to their heads," said Nancy Augustyniak. "So we've been working on our services for the past few weeks, staying after practice, and it finally paid off."

Former Wolfpack All-American Thori Bryan played all 90 minutes for the CyberRays in the loss.

Atlanta plays at the Philadelphia Charge next Saturday at 7:00 p.m.