Soccer blanks Tennessee-Martin 3-0

NASHVILLE, Tenn. –Forward Nicole Lukens scored a pair of goals and added an assist in leading Vanderbilt to a 3-0 win over Tennessee-Martin Friday night at the VU Soccer Complex.

The Commodores finished off their non-conference slate with a 6-1-1 mark for the second straight season. The Skyhawks fell to 3-4 on the year.

Lukens scored both of VU’s goals in the first half and added an assist on the team’s goal in the second half. She now has a career best five goals on the year to lead the squad in that category.

“Nicole has a great ability to score goals,” said head coach Ronnie Woodard. “She is very calm in front of the net and getting the ball and tucking them away just like a world class goal scorer.”

Lukens first goal, at the 12:16 mark, came off an assist from Megan Forester and she fired the ball in from 10 yards out into the top left corner of the net. Her second goal came at the 41:13 minute mark when she took a nicely setup pass from Molly Kinsella and scored from four yards out into an empty net. Kinsella had drawn the UTM keeper out to her on the left to create the easy score.

Molly Kinsella capped off the scoring at the 56:16 mark taking feeds from Forester and Lukens and connecting from four yards out into the back right corner to make it 3-0. It was her fourth score of the year and with another assist on the night, she now has seven in the first eight games.

Vanderbilt outshot the Skyhawks 13-6 for the game and the goalkeeper combo of Rachel Bachtel and Jessica Amlaw combined on the shutout, the fourth of the year.

The Commodores will be back in action next Friday in the Southeastern Conference opener against South Carolina in Columbia at 6 p.m. CT. The game will be televised regionally on Fox Sports Net. Check local listings for availability in your area.

“We are looking forward to starting what we call the second season, conference play,” said Woodard. “The last two seasons, we have been disappointed in our results in the SEC. We entered conference play really well and then struggled in October. We are looking to make a change this year and we start off against two nationally ranked teams on the road. It should be a tough challenge.”