The Saint Louis University women’s soccer team bid farewell to Hermann Stadium for the year in style. With one of their best weekend performances of the year, the Billikens (4-8-4) tied Saint Joseph’s 1-1 on Friday before blanking Temple 2-0 on Sunday’s senior day.
After a Saint Joseph’s goal in just the second minute of play, the Billikens fought back to tie the game, finally finding the back of the net behind senior Alli Reimer’s header in the 69th minute off an assist from Jenny Hummert. After that early goal by Saint Joseph’s Mo Hawkins, the Billikens began a relentless offensive charge, especially in the second half. They had 11 shots to Saint Joseph’s one, the last coming in the 89th minute, another rocket from Hummert’s foot, adding to her team-high seven points for the season.
“It would have been great to put one in to go ahead in the final minute, but I’m proud of the team for responding to the early adversity and scoring the equalizer,” head coach Kat Mertz said in a press release.
The Billikens continued the momentum on Sunday against Temple, when they honored seniors Reimer, Katie Walsh, Maggie Baumann and Kaitlyn Doescher prior to kickoff.
While the seniors were honored, it was freshman Jamei Borges who began the scoring for the Billikens, picking up her third goal of the season in the 36th minute. Borges whipped a shot to the far side of the net off a pass from Jessie Jarrett to jumpstart the Billikens offense.
The Billikens picked up another goal fresh out of the locker room in the 45th minute, and then rode Walsh’s six saves to a 2-0 shutout. Perhaps Walsh did the most individual celebrating after the game, as she is now tied for second on SLU’s all-time shutout list after recording the 19th of her career. Well behind the all-time record of 38, Walsh will look to add to her total in SLU’s final two regular season games next weekend.
The Billikens sit at 12th in the Atlantic 10 standings, and will need to win their final two games of the season at Charlotte and George Washington if they want any chance of making it into the eight-team conference championship. The women also go into their last weekend of competition looking to improve upon their conference win total from last season, when they went 3-5-1 in the A-10. They currently sit at 2-3-2.
For now though, first-year head coach Mertz is pleased to celebrate the seniors that stayed with the program, through all the adversity and misfortune.
“They took a risk and really believed in the coaching staff and what we’re doing,” Mertz said.
Now, the seniors will look to end their season in style on the road, hoping to gain entrance into the A-10 tournament.
