There is a record-setting team on campus, and it’s women’s soccer.
For the first time in the college’s history, women’s soccer has started 7-0.
After a 3-1 win against Averett, the team etched their names in women’s soccer lore here.
Even though the team did something unseen on this campus, Head Coach Erin Saleeby was more focused on the team’s performance.
“The whole game was sloppy. We didn’t possess well. We took a couple of opportunities, and we were able to score early and keep the pressure on them,” Saleeby said.
Scoring early was no exaggeration as senior Bri Bitz put one in the back of the net 32 seconds into the match.
“I have been asking the team to start fast and strong, and they definitely delivered on that one,” Saleeby said. “I was excited for such an early goal but knew that we would need more to beat Averett.”
Senior, Ashlynn Mitcham and freshman Amber Nichole Gillen provided more by each scoring a goal of their own.
“Good teams are going to have bad games, but they find a way to win. That was my message to the team. No one was really satisfied with the performance as a whole,” Saleeby said.
Although the team set a record, the performance in a 3-1 win wasn’t good enough for Saleeby or the team.
“What I’m excited about, though, is that we just set this record, but they’re all angry at their performance,” Saleeby said. “Everybody was working hard individually; we weren’t playing together.”
Following the Averett match, Mitcham was awarded ODAC Women’s Soccer player of the week.
“Ashlynn has scored some really big goals this season. She scored two game-winning goals last week in games against SVU and Averett. She has seven goals for the season (Second only to Bri Bitz) and leads the ODAC in game winning goals with three,” Saleeby said.
The team then travelled to Meredith College.
The first half took senior Haley Woodward and Mitcham out of play. Woodward left with an injury, and Mitcham left with a nosebleed and was unable to return.
The score was 0-0 at the end of the first half, but Bitz was able to nothch the match’s only goal in the second half to give the Panthers the 1-0 victory and up their unbeaten streak to 8-0.
“We definitely had to dig deep for that one. We had to move some people around and asked some people to step up big, and they definitely did that,” Saleeby said. “We played well but started slow in the first half. They turned it on in the second half and really took control of the game.”
After eight matches the team has outscored opponents 27-5.
“It’s exciting to know that the team can score. It allows us to stay in games, even if we don’t have the majority of the possession,” Saleeby said. “Knowing that we have the ability to attack is very dangerous, and it means you can’t count us out ever.”
Next up is ODAC play.
Women’s soccer will travel to EMU Sat.,, Sept. 28, to start conference competition.
“The ODAC is a really tough conference, and the games will be very different. We’ve really adopted the approach of not looking ahead or looking back,” Saleeby said. “The only thing that we are focused on is the very next game. We aren’t worried about the game after that, and we aren’t too focused on the 8-0 start. It’s exciting, but we knew we were capable of doing that. We set that standard for ourselves because we knew that it was attainable. We’re proud of what we have done, but we’re always hungry for more.”
