The Saint Louis University Billikens women’s soccer team had a successful past weekend with a victory over Rhode Island on Friday and a tie against the University of Massachusetts on Sunday.
The defeat over Rhode Island marked the first 2-0 start of conference play for the Billikens since 2007.
With a cross from sophomore Jenny Hummert, freshman Abbey Stock headed the ball into the back of the net only two minutes into the match on Friday. That proved to be enough for the Billikens, who kept the score at 1-0 against the Lady Rams. Sunday’s match against the Minutewomen of Massachusetts ended in a 1-1 draw. After an early goal from sophomore Jessie Jarrett, her first of the year, the Billikens were off to good start. Stock contributed with the assist.
At 71 minutes, a yellow card on the Billikens’ end gave the Minutewomen a direct kick at the goal. Lauren Skesavage scored her first goal of the year—the first of the match for UMass—off the kick.
Junior goalkeeper Katie Walsh had a well-played match, racking up eight more saves to tie her season high. Emily Cota tallied up six saves for UMass. Offense attempts were spread evenly among the Billikens: Jarrett, Hummert and Stock each put up two while Tori Belgeri, Mary Wright and Alli Reimer contributed one apiece.
The Billikens struggled with off-sides throughout the game, with a total of nine calls to the Minutewomen’s one call. Each team took numerous corner kicks as well—four for SLU and nine for UMass—but none of them produced goals. The Billikens committed 11 fouls total, while UMass had nine.
Overtime brought many more goal attempts for each team. Walsh saved numerous solid shots and deflected corner kicks from all sides of the box. Moa Mattsson took six shots, and Skesavage added five as well. The victory and the tie improved the Billikens’ record to 2-0-1 in the Atlantic 10 Conference. With 15 points, they are now fourth place in the A-10 behind La Salle (Philadelphia, PA), Richmond (Virginia) and Massachusetts.
This successful weekend does not mean the road to championships is any smoother. “We’re in a very well-balanced conference,” Head Coach Tim Champion said about upcoming challenges. “It’s going to be tough. We have to bring a lot of energy to each match, especially on the road.”
However, SLU will have advantages over others as well. Champion believes that they are a technical team, and they can move the ball well.
“We would like to combine that with game tactics. That would help us a lot,” he said.
The team is pretty young this season and must continue to work hard against their older, more experienced rivals. Being in fourth place is a good sign that their hard work is paying off. This weekend, the Billikens will travel to the East Coast to take on Duquesne (Pittsburgh, PA) on Friday, Oct. 14 and St. Bonaventure (Olean, NY) on Sunday, Oct. 16 to continue conference play.
