Women’s Soccer Moves to 2-0 in SEC

Women’s Soccer Moves to 2-0 in SEC

9/25/2005

<?xml:namespace prefix=”st1″ ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags”?>Nashville — The Vanderbilt women’s soccer team extended its win-streak to nine games and its home unbeaten streak to 16 games with a 2-0 victory of LSU. The nine wins ties a school record for most consecutive wins, set from 10/7/90-9/8/91. The team had already broken the single-season of seven straight victories with Friday’s 5-0 win over Arkansas.

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“I can’t place a number on how important it is to be able to start of the SEC with two wins,” head coach Ronnie Coveleskie Hill said. “To have two very good opponents come in here and for us to outscore them 7-0 is great. We still have nine games to go, but we’re happy to have two under our belt. I’m really proud of the girls for the way that they stepped up for conference play.”

The Commodores (9-1-0; 2-0-0) took a 2-0 lead into the half thanks to a couple of set plays. Senior midfielder Lauren Mitchell (Millersville, Md.), who started the game as a defender, scored on a direct kick from about 25 yards out after senior forward Kelci Hegg (Charlotte, N.C.) drew a foul in a collision near the top of the LSU (4-3-2; 0-1-1) box. Hegg came out of the game and received stitches in her head, but was able to return in the second half.

In the 11^th minute, Mitchell took the free kick and fired it right past the LSU wall and into the lower, left corner of the net past a diving Jackie Moseley, LSU’s goalkeeper. Moseley finished the game with 10 saves on 25 VU shots, while allowing two goals.

The second score of the game came shortly after a corner kick. Freshman forward Jessica Lenze (Peachtree City, Ga.) fired the corner into the middle of the field only to have the ball pop back out to her. She set herself just outside the box and again fired a cross directly in front of the net and sophomore forward Brett Burns (Minnetonka, Minn.) put her head on it to record her first career goal. It was the first assist for Lenze.

Burns, who transferred from the University of Virginia after last season, came to Hill as a defender, but pleaded her case to get playing time at the forward position. That transition came about slowly as she battled a bout of mononucleosis and was unable to play for nearly three weeks.

“Brett’s comment to me was: ‘If you put me at forward, I’ll battle for you and I’ll get you a 50/50 goal.'” Hill said. “She did that today and scored a great goal with a great effort. I’m very happy for her and I’m proud of the work she put in. Putting the ball in the back of the net builds a good case for her to play up there.”

The Vanderbilt defense again was able to clamp down on the LSU attack, allowing only 6 shots and none on goal by the speedy Lady Tigers. That stat is slightly misleading as the Lady Tigers did have some excellent scoring chances but Vanderbilt junior defenders Kim Perkins (Highlands Ranch, Colo.), Kari Boersma (Littleton, Colo.) and Monica Buff (Lilburn, Ga.) were able to prevent the shot or block it before it ever reach junior goalkeeper Tyler Griffin (Charlotte, N.C.). Griffin earned her sixth shut out of the year and it was the team’s eighth.

The Commodores next opponent will be Auburn, the first of four road games for Vanderbilt. The game, played at the Auburn Soccer Complex, will begin at 7 p.m.