The women's soccer team picked up their eighth win of the season to remain undefeated in a 3-0 shutout victory against Southern Wesleyan University Tuesday night from Alumni Stadium in Greenville, South Carolina.
"Despite the fall break the team came back ready to play and really stepped up in many areas that we have been working on," said Head Coach Chris Carmichael. "It's a work in progress and playing a system that has some unique challenges but fits our style of play well. Our midfield and strikers did a great job finding space and keeping the field more balanced and as such our possession was much better tonight."
After over a week without a game, the Bruins stepped onto the pitch ready to play against Southern Wesleyan University. It's always been a solid matchup between the Bruins and the Warriors as the two South Carolina teams have met now nine times in the last 10 years. Bob Jones currently leads the series 6-3 after winning the last four matches.Â
The Bruins held possession through most of the first half and after a couple of looks, the Bruins capitalized in the 18th minute. Mia Marks collected the ball off of a throw in and crossed the ball towards the net. As the SWU keeper worked to make the save, the ball slipped out of her hands and Francesca Peters took her chance and sent the ball into the back of the net to put the Bruins ahead 1-0.
Wasting no time, Rylee Johnson sent a through ball right up the center of the field to Gabriela Gonzalez whose shot went right past the goalkeeper to double the Bruins lead in the 20th minute.
After halftime, the Warriors stepped up their pace of play and put several looks on the Bruins net early. Margaret Cummings and the Bruins defense stepped up big to stop several of those shots. Â
As time was ticking down, the Bruins had several close calls, but in the 76th minute, the Bruins sealed the deal with their third goal of the game. Gabriela Gonzalez sailed the ball forward to Sylvia Cummings who beat out her defender to go one on one with the goalkeeper. She sent her shot low to the back corner to notch the third goal of the contest.Â
After 90 minutes of play, the Bruins pulled out the clean sheet and the 3-0 victory.
Following the game, Coach Carmichael spoke of his team saying, "Margaret Cummings continues to play very well and earned another clean sheet as she commanded the box and has been huge for us all year.
He continued saying, "Braden Adams has been playing extremely well all year but really stepped up tonight and kept SWU out of the 18 and did a phenomenal job building our attacks and making great decisions with the ball. The rest of our defenders, Jessica Townsend, Abby Arrowood and Jane Farr played a great game as well. Sylvia Cummings and Ches Peters did a great job putting constant pressure on their back line and both were able to capitalize on their pace and each notched a goal. Gaby Gonzalez and Mia Marks were able to engage their defenders and created a number of goal scoring opportunities and Gaby was able to notch another goal tonight. I know SWU had some challenges coming into this match and despite this did a phenomenal job keeping pressure on us and never giving up."
"The girls showed up tonight determined and focused," said midfielder Sylvia Cummings. "Our back line played very disciplined for 90 minutes which allowed for more offensive chances. Our strikers and wingers found the open spaces and capitalized on our chances. We look forward to our next match and are looking to improve and tweak our mistakes."
On Saturday, the Bruins are back at Alumni Stadium for an afternoon match against Georgia Southwestern State University.Â
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