After four straight road games to open the season and a series of postponements due to the terrorists’ attacks in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania, the Saint Louis University women’s soccer team played its first home game on Tuesday.
Despite sloshy conditions, the Billikens defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes 2-0 in a game that had originally been scheduled for last Sunday.
Freshman forward Jamie Perry gave the Billikens the lead 26 minutes into the contest. Sophomore back Carrie Carlson hit a long pass over the midfielders from SLU’s defensive third.
Perry ran onto the ball and beat Iowa’s defense. Perry found herself one-on-one with Hawkeye keeper Britta Vogele and beat the keeper to the left from 12 yards out.
The Billikens controlled the offense, outshooting Iowa 10-6 in the first half.
Junior midfielder Mandy Trokey added an insurance goal 11 minutes into the second half. Junior midfielder Jenny Kehl hit a long ball upfield to Trokey. She faked the defender and completely opened herself up for a chance at the keeper. Trokey beat Vogele in the left corner for a 2-0 lead.
“This is the first game we’ve played well,” coach Tim Champion said. “We generated a lot of chances. We had six quality scoring opportunities. We hadn’t been creating these types of chances earlier this year. We moved the ball well. Moving Jenny Kehl to the midfield helped. She wins so many balls.
“Defensively we were more organized,” Champion added. “We did a better job overall. We had more control throughout the game as a team. Things are starting to come together for us. We played more like we did last year.”
“Things should go well from here,” said senior back Melissa Gossman. “We know what we need to do. We played well at West Virginia and that gave us confidence. If we play well and play together we can beat anyone.”
The Billikens open Conference USA play this weekend with a pair of games at Robert R. Hermann Stadium.
“It was good to get the Iowa game in before we open conference play,” Champion said. “It’s nice to get back home this weekend.”
The Memphis Tigers come to town Friday night at 7 p.m. SLU leads the overall series 3-2-0. The Billikens recorded a 3-1 victory last season at Robert R. Hermann Stadium.
Memphis enters the contest with a 2-2-1 record after picking up its victories with wins over UT-Martin and Mississippi. Junior Alison Baker is the offensive catalyst, firing 17 shots and scoring two goals. Memphis has recorded seven goals in its first four games, but they have also given up seven goals.
“I expect them to be better than last year,” Champion said. “They just beat a quality team in Mississippi earlier this week.”
C-USA newcomer Texas Christian University rounds out the weekend on Sunday at 1 p.m. This is the first time the two teams have met.
TCU is 2-2-0 coming into this weekend’s contest and will play at East Carolina on Friday night.
The Horned Frogs opened the season with a 2-1 win over Texas Tech and followed that with a 3-2 victory over Mississippi State in a tournament hosted by UAB. Sophomore Jenny Swanson leads the team with four points on one goal and two assists.
