SLU Women’s Soccer kicked off Atlantic 10 conference play on Sept. 21, hosting St. Bonaventure. Going into A-10 season play, there is “a little more juice in the air” says Head Coach Katie Shields.  The Lady Bills opened up the scoring right away with a goal in the seventh minute from sophomore forward Emma Farley, netting her second goal of the season. SLU continued to control the game, scoring two more goals before the 20th minute. The Bonnies held off the vicious Billiken attack until scoring broke out with a goal from sophomore defender Ali Klug in the 44th minute. Klug drove the ball into the back of net with her head, scoring her first career goal. “We’ve been working really hard on set pieces” Klug said on her hard work paying off. The Lady Bills wrapped up the scoring in the 48th minute, ending the score line at 5-0. Sophomore, Olivia Silverman stepped in between the posts for senior goalkeeper Mary Niehaus to secure the shutout by stopping a penalty kick.

The Lady Bills continued conference play with two away games, the first versus Duquesne. Though the Billikens fell in Pittsburgh, their first loss of the season, the highlight came as Ali Klug scored her second goal of the season off a service from sophomore midfielder Courtney Reimer, creating the Billikens’ 20th player combination. Coach Shields commented on the team’s depth saying, “You never know who’s gonna score.” The second road game placed the Bills against Davidson. A 2-0 win saw both goals come only minutes apart in the second half. With 10 different Billikens registering shots, the emerging scorers were sophomores Alyssa Seitzer and Courtney Reimer, the latter scoring her first goal in a SLU uniform.

The Women’s Soccer team returned home to Hermann Stadium on the first day of October to play their fourth A-10 game of the season against St. Joseph’s. Being Alumni Day, Coach Shields made sure her players knew this game was about more than themselves: “I asked them each to pick a player that is older than them and played in the program before them, and play for them today.” And play they did. The first half played out to 0-0, but scoring broke out in the 55th minute with freshman forward, Olivia Petit, scoring her fifth goal of the season off a cross from Evie Lavelle. One minute later, senior midfielder Lauren Tondl converted a penalty kick, marking the first goal of her career. Tondl said she will “always bury these in case I’m needed to make one” because of a missed PK in a high school State Semi-Final game. The contest finished at 3-0 putting the Bills at 11-1-1 overall and 3-1 in the A-10.

The Bills are back in action on Thursday, Oct. 5 at 7 p.m. where they face off against A-10 rival, Dayton, in a rematch from last year’s A-10 quarterfinal match.