LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Spalding women's soccer hosted conference opponent Blackburn College at Legacy Fields on Saturday afternoon. SU efficiently handled the Beavers as the scoreboard read 10-0 after 90 minutes.
Spalding continued their impressive start to the season and improved their record to 7-2-2 (2-0-1 SLIAC). Blackburn fell to 0-8-1 (0-3-0 SLIAC) on the season.
TURNING POINT
After celebrating their ring ceremony honoring the 2023 SLIAC Tournament Championship team, Spalding wanted to put on a good performance for the friends and family in attendance. Freshmen
Trinity Bauwens and
Karolyn Lighthall wasted no time in starting the show. Bauwens netted her first career goal, and Lighthall contributed the assist in the 4th minute of action. Soon after,
Elle Trentman scored her first goal of the season off of a pass from
Emma Livingston. In the 11th minute, Spalding scored again, with Lighthall assisting
Jaelyn Dodson to put SU ahead 3-0. Livingston was next up for the Golden Eagles, slotting home a pass from
Melaney Frick in the 17th minute to take sole possession of the conference lead for goals scored. Two minutes later,
Kelli Bergmark scored her first goal of the game, with assist credits going to
Madison Dziedzic. In the 22nd minute,
Clara Creg took a shot that careened off the crossbar straight to
Faith Rutherford, who put Spalding ahead 6-0. Thirty seconds later,
Genevieve Poynter took an excellent shot that was met with an even better save from the Blackburn keeper. However, the ball fell right to Bergmark, who calmly tapped in her second goal of the game. In the 25th, Creg collected her second assist of the game with an incisive pass to
Lejla Salihovic, who scored her first goal of the season. Still working on the box score, Creg added a tally by her name in the goals column in the 37th minute to put SU ahead 9-0 heading into the half.
In the second half, Spalding focused on maintaining possession. SU won three more corners in the half, bringing their game total to 11. In the 62nd minute, the last of these corners led to the game's final goal. Sophomore
Emily Doonan tallied her first career assist with an excellent pass to freshman
Macey Sawyer, who scored her first collegiate goal. SU took down the Beavers in convincing fashion, 10-0.
GOLDEN EAGLE NOTES
NEXT FOR SPALDING
Spalding hits the road for their next game as they head to Fulton, Missouri, to take on the Blue Jays of Westminster. The Golden Eagles will look to continue their unbeaten run in conference play. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 PM on Thursday, October 10th.
