While Wright State University hosted the Air Force 5K, the WSU women’s soccer team exploded for five goals in a shutout win over Tennessee Tech Friday evening.
The Raiders improved to 2-6 on the season after six one-goal losses. WSU lost a pair of 1-0 contests last weekend at the Mountain Classic held in Flagstaff, Az. before returning home this week.
WSU head coach Pat Ferguson attributed Friday’s effort to a good week of training following the tough road trip.
“My gosh, I thought this was a couple games coming,” Ferguson said. “The Northern Arizona trip was tough for a lot of reasons… I thought we had two of our best training sessions. I think it says a lot about the team.”
Five different Raiders scored in Friday’s victory.
Coming into Friday’s match, WSU had scored three goals in its first seven contests. Bryce Hueber, Megan Wilcox, Ellie Ganz, Natalie Sedlock and Stevee Hazel all scored for WSU.
“We really need this one,” Sedlock said. “Scoring all those goals really benefited us considering we have only scored three goals. That was really exciting.”
Ferguson used his entire 25-person roster in Friday’s match. WSU has a quick turnaround playing again Sunday. Giving the starters much of the second half was a nice bonus for Ferguson’s squad as the Raiders prepare to host Morehead State for the final match before Horizon League play.
“We needed that kind of game today because Morehead State is a good team,” Ferguson said. “They are very physical and athletic so we needed to give some of these kids a rest so we can be better prepared for Sunday.”
With the Raiders losing its top scorers Emilie Fillion and Ini Umotong from last season, WSU has had a challenging time finding goal scoring. With five Raiders scoring Friday, Sedlock said it shows WSU can score by committee.
“That was my first goal of the season and that came from working and working,” Sedlock said. “And we had a lot of freshman score today as well too so that was really good.”
WSU got on the board with a goal in the 26th minute as Hueber, a freshman from Cincinnati, fired a shot from distance over the head of Tech goalkeeper Rebecca Toler.
Twelve minutes after Hueber’s goal, Wilcox came off the bench and scored her first collegiate goal from distance to give WSU a 2-0 advantage.
With Tennessee Tech opting to use a new goalkeeper in the second half, the Raiders got on her early. Ganz also scored her first of the season as she took Savannah Carmosino’s cross and buried the shot in the 54th minute.
Sedlock, the only non-freshman to score in the contest, scored her first of the season after she cleaned a rebound left from an Allie Metzler shot off the post to give WSU a 4-0 advantage in the 60th minute. The Raiders finished up the scoring with less than two minutes remaining after Stevee Hazel fired her shot over Tech goalkeeper Allison Barlow to give WSU a 5-0 lead.
