Aug. 29, 2015
Ambrose Interview | Charley Interview | De Zeeuw Interview
SPOKANE, Wash. – After just missing a chance to put the game away in regulation, Simone Charley made sure to quickly end it in overtime.
Charley scored her second of two goals on the night in the 94th minute off an assist from Keegan Thimons to lift Vanderbilt to a 3-2 victory over Gonzaga in overtime on Friday. The Commodores scored their first three goals of the year en route to picking up their first win of the season and first victory under first-year coach Darren Ambrose.
Up 2-1, Charley nearly iced the game in the 88th minute, but her breakaway attempt bounced off the far post. In the 90th minute, with less than 30 seconds remaining, Gonzaga tied the game to force overtime.
But the Commodores (1-2) regrouped to pick up a huge road win. Less than four minutes into overtime, Thimons sent a long pass down the sideline and over the defense toward Charley. The junior All-SEC forward raced to the ball, redirected toward the net and laced a shot into the left corner past Gonzaga goalkeeper Christie Tombari.
“It feels awesome,” Charley said. “Coming back after a tough goal with a minute or so left was definitely disheartening. But it was great to see the fight in all of us on the field and being able to come back and get the victory… We were talking about (before overtime began) how it is a fight and this game is a test of our character and if we’re willing to fight for the victory.”
Charley notched the second multi-goal game of her career and Thimons, a senior, recorded her first career assist. Sophomore Cristina De Zeeuw also scored and redshirt sophomore Lydia Simmons and junior Sasha Gray added assists.
De Zeeuw’s first career goal came in the 10th minute as she tapped in a corner kick from Simmons out of the air and into the right corner of the goal. It was Vanderbilt’s first goal of the season.
“I made a near post run, just flicked it out of the air and (toward) the near post,” De Zeeuw said. “I was really confused after I scored then someone came and gave me a high five and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh I scored.’ I think a goal early helped (the team) because right after that another one came.”
Charley gave the Commodores a 2-0 lead in the 21st minute. Gray slipped a pass to Charley just inside the box. Charley then slid the ball past Tombari into the bottom left corner.
The Commodores took the two-goal advantage into halftime but Gonzaga (0-1-1) came out of the break more aggressive. Karley Baggerly cut the lead in half with a goal in the 51st minute. The Bulldogs kept badgering VU throughout the second half, firing off 10 shots. But the Commodores stood tall as Christiana Ogunsami made seven saves and senior captain Erin Myers made a huge team save when she slid to keep a shot from crossing the goal line.
But Baggerly struck with the equalizer with 25 seconds left after Gonzaga zipped a pass up ahead of the Vanderbilt defense. Stunned, but not knocked down, the Commodores shook off the late goal and pulled out their first victory of 2015.
“Great response. You couldn’t ask for a better response,” Ambrose said. “I’m really pleased with, obviously not just getting a win but the fact they came back in that style. You can give up a goal with 20 seconds to go, it took the air out of all of us. It is a step forward and yet we still have a lot we took out of the game that we learned… We made mistakes but the great thing is we can now look at those, they can correlate exactly to, ‘Well, if we had done that we probably wouldn’t have been in that situation and the game would have been over.’
“So really happy for them. Great response. Good way to start the weekend.”
The Commodores fly to Seattle on Saturday and cap off the road trip at 2 p.m. (Central Standard Time) on Sunday against Seattle University.