Commodores Shut Out Third Straight Opponent

Commodores Shut Out Third Straight Opponent

9/4/2005

After a brilliant offensive display in Friday night’s 9-0 victory over Francis Marion, the Vanderbilt women’s soccer team showed Sunday that its defense is a big reason for the Commodores’ 3-1 record.

The team beat Washington State 1-0 Sunday afternoon at the Vanderbilt Soccer Complex in what was a back-and-forth, physical match. After being out-shot in the first half 5-3, the Commodore defense clamped down and allowed only one shot the rest of the game.
“Defensively we were very solid,” said head coach Ronnie Coveleskie Hill. “Washington State plays a very tough style to defend. We did a great job of winning balls today.”

“We played the same backline the whole game (Ashley Duffy, Kim Perkins, Monica Buff and Kari Boersma) and you have to give them credit — they’ve combined for three shutouts in four games. One of the things we pride ourselves on is working hard and they have really bought into that mentality.”

While the defenders were preventing WSU from firing away, the Commodore attackers were doing just that, ripping off nine shots in the second half.

The lone goal of the game came in the 63rd minute when freshman Katie Schulz found herself dribbling past and around Cougar defenders to get with a few yards of the goal. Her shot was saved by WSU goalkeeper Katie Hultin but only temporarily as senior midfielder Meghan Habig put her head on it and sent it to the back of the net. It was the first goal of the season for Habig, who sat out Friday and wore a small cast on her hand today.

“We moved Katie Schulz into the midfield today and she was very active on the dribble and quite frankly she had a tremendous game,” Hill said.

Hill also said that she was very pleased with Habig’s effort to be in front of the goal for the second-chance goal.

“Something we have a really stressed are those second-chance or half-chance goals and Meghan did a super job of getting in position in case the keeper could not hang onto the ball and she scored a big goal for us as a result.”

A scary moment earlier in the game occurred when Schulz and teammate senior Kelci Hegg collide while challenging a WSU player, the two bumped head and were shaken up briefly, but they each remained in the game and contributed to the team effort in the second half.

The game was also Vanderbilt’s third-consecutive shutout, after posting only three all last season. Junior goalkeeper Tyler Griffin (who was pulled against FMU at halftime with the score already at 4-0), an All-SEC First Team selection last year, has now played over 226 consecutive minutes without allowing a goal.

While Vanderbilt victory over FMU on Friday was impressive, so too was WSU’s road upset of No. 11 Tennessee in overtime. Hill however is quick to say that it doesn’t matter what the other team does, the most important thing is for her team to get the win.

“The win’s just important because it puts us on a roll,” Hill said. “We knew they were going to be a very good team this year and getting a win against them is a very good for our program. But it is even more important because we’ve now started the season 3-1 and we’re on a roll with three wins in a row.”

The Commodores will be back in action Friday just down the road as they take on Middle Tennessee State in Murfressboro, Tenn., at 3:30 pm.