PORTSMOUTH – No. 1 Lindsey Wilson, who is also the defending NAIA National Champions, suffered a 2-1 setback at the hands of Lee University on Thursday. On Saturday, the Blue Raiders (8-2, 3-0 MSC) worked out any frustrations from that game with an 8-1 victory over the Shawnee State women's soccer team. Ayaki Shinada led the LWC offense with a hat trick and assisted on another goal to give her seven points for the game.
After starting off the season with a program best winning streak, the Bears have now dropped back-to-back game against the top two teams from the MSC last season. The one bright spot of the game for the Bears was Allison Nagle's goal in the opening half off an indirect kick. The goal was just the second in program history, and first since 2010, against the Blue Raiders for Shawnee State.
SSU held Lindsey Wilson off the scoreboard for the first 12-plus minutes of the game. However, when the Blue Raiders did finally break through they scored three goals in a span of just over seven minutes. The opening goal came in the 13th minute. The Blue Raiders would add another goal in the 15th minute off a corner kick to header finish before closing their scoring for the half with an attacking player beating her defender one on one to finish.
The Bears would get one of those back in the 21st minute. After Lindsey Wilson was called for a foul just outside of the box, the Blue Raiders jumped the gun on charging the indirect kick on the first attempt, giving the Bears another chance. SSU would make its second chance count as Bethany Ward played the indirect kick to Nagle off to the side of the play. Nagle would then rip her shot far post to get her squad on the board. That would also be the final scoring of the opening half as the Bears trailed 3-1 heading to the break.
Lindsey Wilson would add another tally to the board in the 55th minute of play on a deflected pass that ended up right on the foot of the forward who finished making it 4-1. From there, Shinada would would score goals in the 68th, 70th and 87th minutes to record a second half hat trick. Simic would add her second goal in the 81st minute between Shinada's second and third goals to make the final 8-1.
As team, Lindsey Wilson held a 30-7 advantage in shots despite the fact that they were whistled for offsides a total of 19 times during the game. Jessica Fair took three of those shots for the Bears while Schuyler Jones added two more.
Women's soccer will look to shake off its two conference losses suffered this week and regroup as it heads out on the road for five straight games, three of which will be in the upcoming week. The road trip gets started with a trip to Georgetown (Oct. 2, 6 p.m.) and Bluefield (Oct. 5, 1 p.m.) before a non-conference trip to Brescia (Oct. 7, 4 p.m.)
