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Women’s Soccer Opens the Regular Season

Wright State Women's Soccer Team

Wright State Women’s Soccer Team | Photo by Joseph Craven


Women’s soccer played their first regular season game of the year against Marshall, the first match for a new head coach and a returning Wright State University (WSU) team.

After a shortened previous season where the Raiders went 4-5, WSU was looking to start off the season on a better foot.

A team that was 1-4 on the road last season now starts 1-0 on the road.

“It’s exciting,” Head Coach Travis Sobers said. “I’m excited and happy for that.”

The buildup

On top of head coach Sobers, the Raiders added four freshmen, Erin Baker, Olivia Mace, Ainsley Terada and Annika Samborski, to their roster in the off-season, as well as a transfer from Marshall, Gabbi Gordon.

Sobers has been with the program for a long time, but was named as head coach less than a month ago, on Aug. 4th.

“We had an interesting time with me getting here and getting the job just a couple of weeks before the season starts,” Sobers said.

With how recently their new head coach was named, their exhibition matches before Marshall had surprising results. They held Morehead State to a 0-0 finish after 90 minutes, and lost to Miami by only one goal 2-3.

“The kids came into the preseason hitting the ground running,” Sobers said. “It’s more of a testament to their hard work.”

Those two goals were scored by Josie Krupp, the lead goal scorer for the Raiders last season, and defender Suzy Hayes, who has started to make a big impact for WSU in her sophomore year.

The biggest players to keep an eye on are Destiny Johnson, who was unable to play last season, Olivia Mace, the freshman starting for the defense and Olga Massombo, whose runs from the midfield were a big part of WSU’s attack.

All three of those players stepped up to get WSU the win, as Johnson scored her first goal back to put WSU up 1-0, Massombo had the assist to Johnson and slotted away a penalty in 2OT to secure the win and Mace stopped attacks from Marshall before they could start.

Game time

The Raiders ran an aggressive 3-4-3 formation in their first exhibition matches and they did the same here. 

A weakness of the 3-4-3 formation seemed to show early into the game, as only two minutes in Marshall had a break-away ball from the midfield and put it into the back of the net only to be called offside.

However, that second minute scare seemed to wake the team up as they would dominate play for most of the half.

They took the lead in the 24th minute off of a run from Massombo passed to Johnson, who turned with a defender on her back and slotted it into the net.

The Raiders smelled blood after that shot, hitting another shot off of the post less than a minute later.

“The resiliency of this team is the one thing I really liked,” Sobers said. “We always talk about being relentless in everything we do.”

In the second half Marshall’s forwards and midfield started pressuring harder, forcing turnovers and giving themselves more corner kicks.

One of these corners gave Marshall a goal off of a set piece, evening the score 1-1.

The game was scoreless at 90 minutes and through the first overtime as both teams began to run out of steam.

A trip in the box off of a good attack gave WSU a penalty kick. Massombo seemed entirely unfazed by the pressure and slammed the ball into the upper right corner for a Raider win.

“It’s really about small steps, and us trying to get better every time we set foot on the field. And I think we did that today,” Sobers said.


Noah Kindig

Sports Reporter

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