KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – Two early season road tests for the Truman Women's Soccer team are on tap this weekend. The Bulldogs will play at Rockhurst on Friday evening in Kansas City before taking on the defending conference champion, Quincy Lady Hawks on Sunday afternoon.
The Bulldogs are 5-1 and 1-1 in the GLVC while Rockhurst is 3-2-1 and 2-0 and Quincy is 3-3 and 1-1 in the league.
The enigma of the Lewis Flyers over the Truman Bulldogs continued last Friday when Lewis handed Truman their first setback of 2018, 2-1 at home. Lewis moved to 2-0-3 over Truman since the Bulldogs joined the GLVC in 2013 and is the only conference team Truman has not registered a win against.
Laura Ney got her first goal of the season in the match on a free kick but Lewis regained the lead and eventual game-winner off a free kick of their own.
Truman bounced back with a 2-0 win over Southern Indiana on Sunday. The Bulldogs peppered 24 shots and had eight corner kicks compared to eight shots and three corners for the Screaming Eagles.
Faith Branson scored her second goal of the season on a pass from
Hanna Hickey and
Chance Douglass scored the insurance goal and her second of the season from a feed by
Hanna Burke.
The latest United Soccer Coaches Poll was not kind to the Bulldogs, Truman dropped out of the Top 25 after being number 20 last week. The poll did not take into account Sunday's home win over USI. The Bulldogs dropped from third to seventh in the Midwest Region with four schools from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference occupying the top four spots. (
National Poll |
Regional Poll).
Branson and Douglass joined
Hanna Liljegren and
Katie Vollmer with two goals each and Truman as a team have nine players that have scored their 13 goals. The Bulldogs are tops in the GLVC with players on roster with a goal at nine and second in the conference in goals scored with 13. The Bulldogs are averaging 16.3 shots per game, good for third in the league and trail UINDY by two goals scored for the top spot.
Hanna Burke is tied with Molly Richardson (Lewis) and Michelle Govern (UINDY) with four assists on the season and the top spot in the conference.
On the defensive side, Truman is second in goals allowed with three through six matches. McKendree has allowed one score in their four matches played. The team has allowed 48 shots with 27 on goal. The 4.5 shots on goal per game average is currently fifth in the GLVC trailing McKendree's 3.0 per game mark.
Beth Hopwood is the leader in the league in shutouts with four and has an 88.9% save percentage and a 0.49 goals against average.
The Bulldogs are 11-1-1 all-time against Rockhurst and have for the past four matches. Truman scored early and then often in a 4-0 win over the Hawks last season in Kirksville.
Hanna Hickey scored 42 seconds into the match.
Addy Hoffman followed in the 32
nd minute to make it 2-0. In the second half,
Allison Lockett scored two goals in 29 seconds. It was the most goals by Truman in 33 matches dating back to the 2015 season.
Rockhurst started conference with a bang by knocking off the defending champ Quincy 3-1 at home then shutting out Illinois Springfield 3-0. They are 3-2-1 on the season with a 2-1 non-conference, common opponent with the Bulldogs in Northwest Missouri. Stephanie Ostrander has five of the teams' nine goals. Keepers Rosie Breheny and Megan Meyers have split time between the pipes with each starting three matches. Breheny has allowed three goals and made 10 saves and Meyers has allowed five goals and made 14 saves.
Quincy and Truman started playing matches in 1984, the first season of soccer at Truman and the Lady Hawks hold a 12-11-4 advantage in the all-time series. The last two matches have all been played in Quincy with the Bulldogs winning 1-0 in 2016 and the Lady Hawks won 2-0 last season. Quincy held Truman to four shots, two on goal and scored goals in each half for the win. The Lady Hawks had an 8-1 advantage on corner kicks and a 7-2 advantage in shots on goal.
New head coach Marc Hager took over for Dave Musso over the off season and is 3-3 on the season. They had a 1-0 win over Southwest Baptist in the season opener, a 2-0 win against UW-Parkside in non-conference action and a 1-0 win over Missouri S&T on Sunday. They will play Lewis University on Friday at home. Cassidy Foley has four of the six Lady Hawk goalsand Emilee Autry has allowed seven goals with a 1.17 goals-against average.
The Bulldogs will be at Missouri-St. Louis and at home against Maryville University next weekend.
