The women’s soccer team was busy this past weekend with two games, four goals and trips to Illinois and Michigan. The Billikens travelled first to Chicago on Friday, Sept. 19, to take on the University of Illinois-Chicago Flames and left triumphantly, 4-2.
Senior forward/midfielder Lindsay Elking had two goals and an assist, which gave her a career-high five points. Elking now leads SLU with 11 points and is tied for the team high in goals with four in total.
The team blazed ahead in the first half with two goals by Elking and another by freshman forward Danielle Manning. Teamwork was at the forefront as Elking received an assist from sophomore midfielder Cristina Rodriguez for her first goal and sophomore forward Kirsten Clemens for the second. She then went on to return the favor by assisting Manning’s goal at 39:31.
At half, the team was poised to bring home a win with a 3-0 lead. UIC’s Sydney Wright (assisted by Jasmin Carrera) sought to gain some momentum with a goal at the beginning of the second half, but Cristina Rodriguez quickly answered with another score 20 seconds later, assisted by Danielle Tolmais.
The Flames rallied again at 83:22, when Kendall Wilde scored unassisted, but the Billikens left with a 4-2 victory.
Hanna Benben, junior goalkeeper, made three saves to keep the Flames at bay and claim her fourth victory of the year.
As the Bills travelled up to Michigan, the team hoped their 4-4 record would go up as well. Unfortunately, a goal in each half gave Western Michigan a win over Saint Louis Sunday afternoon at the WMU Soccer Complex.
The 5-2 Broncos got their first score of the match at 20:03, courtesy of Audrey Sudomier. Heather Piccariello and Kylie Nylen assisted on the goal, which was Sudomier’s first of the season.
Gina Maddi also grabbed her first goal of the year with an unassisted point at 66:39 to bring the final score to 2-0.
Rodriguez and Clemens each had two shots on goal, which were individual highs for the game.
Despite shots from Rodriguez, Clemens, freshman midfielder Molly Ream and junior forward Livi Logan-Wood, the Billikens could not erase the deficit.
SLU currently stands with a record of 4-5, while the Broncos advance to 6-2.
Saint Louis gets another shot at victory when they face the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) Mavericks at the Robert R. Hermann stadium Saturday, Sept. 27 at 4 p.m. for Homecoming, the last nonconference game of the season. Afterward, the men’s team will play Central Arkansas at 7:30 p.m., with the traditional Homecoming firework display occurring during halftime.
UNO, a member of the Summit League, is 2-6 so far this season. The Mavericks had a notable win in their first outing of the season, an exhibition game in Ames, Iowa, where they topped Iowa State 2-1. They also battled Creighton last week and lost 1-2 in double overtime. So far this year, the team’s only road win came at Iowa State.
SLU opens up Atlantic 10 play at the University of Dayton on Oct. 4. They then will travel up the East Coast to Fairfax, Va., and Philadelphia, Pa., to face George Mason and Saint Joseph’s respectively. These games will take place on Oct. 10 and 12.
