Bounce-Back Win for Statesmen
Altoona — Despite a last-minute change of location, the William Penn women’s soccer team pushed past their previous defeats and got back in the win column against Faith Baptist Bible. A 2-1 decision saw the team take 26 total shots and despite letting the Eagles get one back, the team rallied to secure the win. Now 5-7 overall, this marks the last non-conference game of the year and the team will look to build on this win to try to get into the Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament.
It took about one minute for the Statesmen to move the ball down the field and Erika Tam (Fr., La Palma, Calif., Biology) let fly but the Eagles keeper made the save. A corner kick led to a shot by Isabella Davies (Fr., Gold Coast, Australia, Biology) which was again saved by the goalie. WPU would keep the pressure on over the course of the next 20 minutes, racking up a couple of shots and three-straight corner kicks. The final of those three resulted in a ball that rolled back out to Isabella Pirami (So., South Jordan, Utah, Exercise Science), who blasted it into the back of the net for her first goal of the year.
It was a great half for the navy and gold. 13 total shots were taken by the team while they held the opposition to zero. They took six corner kicks in the half and Adyson Blom (So., Newton, Iowa, Human Services) had to do very little over the first 45 minutes.
The second half started off with a bang as Kaitlin Falaney (Fr., Ottawa, Ill., Sports Management) was given a ball to chase and she buried the shot into the net for her fourth goal of the season. Up 2-0, Faith Baptist finally responded with a couple shots of their own.
The Statesmen decided to make sure their temporary number-one goalie stayed healthy, so Vanessa Hamilton (Sr., Mannteca, Calif., Exercise Science) was called on to become the new goalie for the team. The offense worked hard to keep pressure away from their own end in response. They took the next five shots as Iris Navarro (Fr, Ontario, Calif., Biology), Davies, and Falaney all saw chances saved by the Eagles keeper.
The battle slowly moved into the midfield as the teams started to figure each other out. The Statesmen still held the majority of the possession but Faith Baptist started to generate a couple of chances, scoring with 18 minutes to go to make the score 2-1. But the navy and gold responded, taking two shots and generating two corner kicks over the final few minutes of the match and held on for the victory.
During the 2-1 win, the Statesmen took 26 total shots with 18 being on target. Blom and Hamilton made two saves each. Pirami paced the team with seven shots and five on target. Davies was next with five shots and three on the marks, while Falaney had four shots of which all four were on target. Off the bench, Natalia Lopez (Fr., Las Vegas, Nev., Sociology) provided a good spark, taking two shots during the game.
“Great to get back to winnings ways today,” said head coach Jaymee Highcock. “We created lots of chances and it was good to get back in the win column. We are now full of confidence to get a big win against Mount Mercy tomorrow night.”
Next Up: The Statesmen return home tomorrow to take on Mount Mercy in Heart Play at 5:00 p.m. on Drost Field.
