UPLAND, Ind. – TU women’s soccer defeated Saint Xavier (0-3-0), winning its second game of the season in as many games, both of which now ring to the tune of 6-0.
Just as the showers rained steadily throughout the first half, so the Trojans scored. TU ripped off eight shots in the first 45 minutes, four of which struck the back of the net. Linli Tu started the party in a timely fashion, scoring the first goal of her senior season in just the third minute of the match.
Claire Massey, last week’s Crossroads League Defensive Player of the Week, collected the first assist of her career, as she attacked the right side of the field before dishing a well-placed cross to the head of Linli Tu. The Trojan senior exercised precision with her head, as she knocked Massey’s assist into the goal’s corner pocket.
TU’s second goal of the match came just two minutes later, when AC Hardy drilled the first goal of her junior season. Hardy navigated the Cougar defense, found a moment of open space and fired a strike into the goal via her left foot. Meanwhile, Ali Vander Kolk grew eager to join the party.
Barely one minute after Hardy’s goal, Vander Kolk diced a defender on the left side before sniping the second goal of her senior season into the upper-right hand pocket of the net. With Vander Kolk’s goal, the Trojans had scored three goals in a three-minute span. Yet, they were not quite done for the half.
In the 18th minute of the match, Erin Teevans scratched her way into the scorebook. The senior Illinois native reaped the reward of a mishandled save attempt by the Cougar goalie, as Teevans scored her second goal of the short 2021 season. The Trojans went into the half up 4-0, while Teevans prepared for her next act.
Just over 10 minutes into the second half, while the rain continued to pour Teevans collected her second goal of the game, now her third of the season. Junior forward, Sophie Snyder, moved up the right side of the field before crossing the ball back to the middle, where Teevans re-directed the pass midair en route to the back of the net. Teevans’ second goal of the game gave Sophie Snyder her first career assist.
Now up 5-0, TU had one goal left to match their 6-0 season-opening victory against Asbury. Freshman, Sarah Mullins, was the one to make the move. Fellow freshman, Audrey Grimm, dribbled up the left side and then found Mullins cross-field with a beautiful pass, which Mullins fired past the Cougar goalie. As the Trojans’ sixth goal of the game, it was both Sarah Mullins’s first career goal and Audrey Grimm’s first career assist.
All the while, the Trojan defense played mightily once again, limiting the Cougars to six shots, only two of which landed on goal merely to be saved by sophomore goalie, Hannah Brackenbury. Brackenbury maintained her 0.00 goals-against average for the season, while collecting her first two saves of the campaign.
TU (2-0-0) heads on the road next week, when they will take on IU East (1-2-0) in Richmond on Tuesday, September 7. The Trojans will look to start the season 3-0 for the second time in as many years.
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