Kelly Ferguson helped the Bills fight to the C-USA championship
on Sunday. Right: Sophomore Dee Guempel moves the ball
downfield.
This weekend, the Saint Louis University women’s soccer team
(13-4-1, 9-0-0 in Conference USA) picked up some hardware.
In spite of their non-conference loss last night to the
university of Illinois, a pair of 3-0 wins over the Universities of
Southern Mississippi and Memphis, respectively, the Billikens
clinched the C-USA regular season title.
In last night’s match, the 20th ranked Illini knocked out the
Bills by a score of 2-1, putting in the winning goal during the
second overtime. Illinois’ Tara Hurless knocked in the goal in the
105th minute to end it in sudden death.
Jamie Perry scored for SLU in the 27th minute on an assist from
junior Kelly Ferguson to put them up 1-0–a lead they would hold
until the waning minutes of regulation. With two minutes to play in
the game, Hurless fed Sarah Brown of the Illini who evened the game
with a goal, sending it to overtime. It marked their first loss
since Sept. 24th.
Their Sunday afternoon tilt with the University of Memphis
officially clinched the program’s second regular season C-USA
title. The win also gave the team their 9th consecutive win and
once again showed their dominance over the rest of the
conference.
As a result of clinching the conference title, the Billikens
will be the top seed in the C-USA postseason tournament, which will
be held on the SLU campus at Robert R. Hermann Stadium from Nov.
3-6.
“Winning the conference title is a big thing for us,” SLU coach
Tim Champion said. “It’s good to have a No. 1 seed and be playing
at home.”
Freshman Cassi Winchell got the Billikens on the board in the
13th minute. Sophomore Dee Guempel lofted a pass over the defense
which Winchell ran on to and chipped the ball over Memphis keeper
Isabel Briones.
After going into halftime with a 1-0 lead, the Billikens added
to their lead early in the second half when junior Kelly Ferguson
scored in the 48th minute.
Sophomore Ellie Somers sent a pass to Ferguson, who was
unchallenged by defenders and sent a rocket from the top of the
penalty area off the inside of the left post and into the goal to
give her team a 2-0 lead. The goal was Ferguson’s 5th of the
season.
Memphis threatened to cut the lead in half with a goal when a
SLU player headed the ball on goal in the 53rd minute, only to have
sophomore Courtney Hulcer clear the ball off the line, preserving
the shutout.
SLU almost added to their lead when senior Jamie Perry moved in
on goal after beating a defender, but a Memphis back eventually cut
off her angle and forced a corner kick.
The Billikens did add to their lead a few minutes later in the
half, as Winchell added her second goal of the game.
Perry sent the ball into the penalty area, where Winchell
collected it, whirled around toward the goal and fired a shot past
keeper Natalie Haerens, who had entered the game just minutes
earlier.
Mississippi featured two goals by Hulcer on free kicks and Perry’s
100th career point.
Perry became the first player in the history of the program to
reach the 100 point plateau when she scored in the 34th minute. She
beat several Southern Mississippi defenders to a ball that Hulcer
lifted over the defense. Upon collecting the ball, Perry quickly
struck the ball over the head of Southern Mississippi keeper Leslie
Schoeplein.
Hulcer’s two goals showed a stark contrast from one another as
the first tally came as she curled the ball around the wall and
into the far corner.
The second goal saw Hulcer send the ball over the wall of
defenders and into the upper corner of the net. The goals came in
the 11th and 18th minutes, respectively. For her efforts, she was
named the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Week. It was the
second time she received that honor and the fourth consecutive week
a Billiken player was given the honor.
With the two wins over the weekend, the Billikens improved to
13-3-1 and a perfect 9-0-0 in C-USA games. In their nine C-USA
games to date, the Billikens have dominated their opponents,
out-scoring their opponents 25-1, with junior keeper Amanda Martin
compiling eight shutouts.
During SLU’s fall break, the Billikens won consecutive road
games over University of Alabama-Birmingham and the University of
South Florida, respectively. SLU gave up their first goal to a
C-USA opponent in a 4-1 win over UAB, but won 2-0 at South Florida
two days later.
Guempel tallied two goals and three assists in the two games,
earning her C-USA Offensive Player of the Week honors.
Martin made it a Billiken sweep of the weekly honors when she
was named Defensive Player of the Week for making 10 saves against
UAB and three more in a shutout of South Florida.
SLU will close their regular season when they host the Marquette
University Golden Eagles Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Robert R.
Hermann Stadium.
They will then move onto the C-USA Tournament, which will be
played at Hermann Stadium from Nov. 3-6.
