Lady Statesmen Fall 3-1 to Doane in McGowan’s Debut
William Penn Women’s Soccer in action at the Lacey Complex (file photo)
Oskaloosa–The William Penn women’s soccer team tallied an impressive early goal in its season opener Friday, but it unfortunately did not hold up as Doane (Neb.) came to town and claimed a 3-1 win.
The Lady Statesmen (0-1) gave the Tigers (1-0) quite a scare in the opening minutes when Silvia Munoz (Fr., Paramount, Calif., St. Matthias HS) flipped a pass forward to Kate Thayer (Fr., East Fremantle, Australia, John Curtin HS). The final Doane defender missed on her attempt to head the ball away, leaving Thayer with a one-on-one chance against goalkeeper Kelsey Stark.
Thayer got to the ball first and put a light touch on it to get around Stark. She then beat two players to the ball and buried it in the unguarded goal for her first collegiate score at the 8:32 mark.
The Tigers were stunned, but responded soon thereafter, however, as Courtney Richards got a shot past keeper Amber Klootwyk (Fr., Knoxville, Knoxville HS) in the 12th minute. Doane took its first lead in the 39th minute on a Meghan Voight goal to lead 2-1 at intermission.
The visitors, who outshot the navy and gold 21-5, closed out the scoring when Sarah Cushing scored unassisted at 69:03.
Ashur Amai (Sr., Queensland, Australia, South Carolina Salkehatchie) paced William Penn with two shots off the bench, while Klootwyk managed six saves in her Lady Statesmen debut.
“Although the score was not what we wanted, we showed a great deal of determination and spirit today,” Head Coach Willie McGowan said. “My hope is that the effort given today can propel us forward into the season. We played against a solid program and gave them a good game, and probably scared them a bit with that early goal.”
“We still have a number of small adjustments we need to make and our fitness levels are still quite low,” McGowan added. “These things are all fixable, though, and I am looking forward to the next game as should our supporters!”
Next: William Penn stays at home next Tuesday to host Waldorf in non-conference action at 7 p.m.
