SHARONVILLE, Ohio – Women's soccer ran its season record to a perfect 4-0 with a 7-1 win on the road at Ohio Mid-Western Monday evening. The contest was the first-ever meeting in program history between the schools.
The perfect record through four games marks the second time in program history that the Bears have won four straight games to start a season. The Bears won a program record five straight games to start the 2011 season. SSU was also unbeaten in its first five games in the 2007 season when the team tied its fourth game of the season on its way to a 4-0-1 start.
The Bears opened the scoring by tallying the first seven goals of the contest Monday night. Sophomores Schuyler Jones and Elizabeth Abbott each tallied twice in the victory while Katie Craft, Hannah Fighlestahler and Jessica Fair each tallied a single goal. Brooke Uhrig and Allison Nagle also assisted on two of the goals while Erin Phillips and Elizabeth Abbott each had a single assist. With her two goals and one assist, Abbott broke her career high with five total points in the contest.
The only down note on Monday evening was this Bears team was looking to be the first team in program history to shut out its opponent in four straight games. However, the defense conceded its first goal of the season in the 88th minute with just over a minute remaining in the game. Emily Kuehn stretched her streak of consecutive minutes without allowing a goal to over 386 minutes dating back to last season before the late OHMW goal.
The Bears struck first just over five minutes into the game when Craft broke through the Ohio Mid-Western defense and tallied the first goal of her SSU career in an unassisted effort. After the quick strike, the Bears would go just over 26 minutes before their next goal. In the 33rd minute, Fighlestahler found the back of the net off a feed from Abbott to make it 2-0. Just 1:59 after the second goal of the game, Jones added her first goal of the game with the assist going to Nagle.
With a 3-0 lead, the Bears were not quite done yet as Jones for the back of the next for the second time in just over four minutes as the Bears would take a 4-0 lead into the half. Uhrig would be credited with the assist on the final goal of the opening half.
Starting out the second half just as quickly as they did during the opening half, Fair tallied in 51st minute with the help of Phillips to put the Bears up 5-0. SSU would add its final two goals with under 20 minutes left in the game as Abbott scored twice. Her first came off a pass from Nagle in the 71st minute while a pass from Uhrig would allow her to finish her second goal of the night in the 76th minute.
As a team, the Bears took 20 shots on Monday night and put 10 of those attempts on frame. Jones led the Bears with four total shots while Nagle, Craft, Fair and Abbott each finished with three shots. The Bears did not concede a corner kick chance while earning five of their own corner attempts.
Women's soccer will be back on the road this Wednesday as the team travels to Ohio Valley College. That game will begin at 1 p.m.
Notes: Elizabeth Abbott's two-goal performance was the first multi-goal game of her SSU career … Schuyler Jones now has two or more goals in six career games, including two multi-goal games during this season … Jones also has now scored in three straight games … Jessica Fair has now scored in all four games this season … Jones and Fair are now tied for the team lead with five goals this season after each tied for the team lead with nine goals a season ago … Allison Nagle recorded two assists for the fourth time in her career Monday night … Erin Phillip's assist was the first point of her Shawnee State career.
