Women's Soccer | September 27, 2018
KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan women's soccer team heads on its first conference road trip of the season, traveling to Toledo on Friday at 2 p.m. and Bowling Green on Sunday at 1 p.m.
LAST TIME OUT
WMU is off to a 2-0 start in Mid-American Conference play thanks to a weekend sweep of Akron and Buffalo at the WMU Soccer Complex. The Broncos opened the weekend with a 1-0 overtime win over the Zips. Freshman defender Victoria Kryiakopolous punched in the game-winning goal just 1:35 into the overtime period. The goal was the first of her young career.
Western Michigan continued its strong into a 4-2 win over the Bulls. Coming into the game Buffalo was on a seven-game winning streak, but WMU jumped all over them with two goals in the first 17 minutes.
Alyssa Burke finished off a corner kick by
Grace Labadie to go up 1-0 in the seventh minute, while
Morgan Otteson added her third goal of the season in the 17th minute to push the lead to 2-0. The Broncos scored another two goals in quick succession to open the second half and expand the lead to 4-0. Labadie netted a pair of penalty kicks in the 49th and 61st minutes to put the game out of reach. The Bulls added two late goals to cut the final score to 4-2. Sophomore goalkeeper
Hannah Sargent made a career-high eight saves in the win.
SCOUTING THE ROCKETS
Toledo (5-4-1, 1-1-0 MAC) split its opening MAC weekend on the road with a 2-0 loss at Ball State and a 2-1 win at Miami. The Rockets are 2-3-0 in their last five and just 1-2-0 at home this season.
Senior Hannah Scafaria has scored eight of the team's 17 goals on the season, including the game-winner against the RedHawks. Alex Troy is the only other player on the team to have more than one goal, currently with two. Sophia Lewis leads the team with three assists. Redshirt sophomore Madison Perrin has started eight games in goal and holds a 4-3-1 record with 34 total saves and two shutouts.
SCOUTING THE FALCONS
Bowling Green (4-3-2, 2-0-0 MAC) hosts Northern Illinois on Friday before welcoming Western Michigan on Sunday afternoon. The Falcons started of MAC play well with a pair of shutout wins at Miami and Ball State. BGSU blanked the RedHawks 2-0 and then bested the Cardinals 3-0. Bowling Green enters the NIU game on a three-game winning streak in which it has outscored opponents 11-0. The last goal given up by the Falcons was in a 1-1 tie back on Sept. 13. Against DePaul.
BGSU is led by junior midfielder Chelsee Washington and senior forward Erica Hubert. Each have five goals this season, while Washington has a team-high four assists for 14 points. Sophomore forward Nikki Cox has three goals on the season, as well. Junior Kathleen Duwve has made nine starts this season with a 4-3-2 record, three shutouts and 35 saves.
IMPRESSIVE FIREPOWER
After scoring five goals in the wins over Akron and Buffalo, the Broncos are now up to 19 goals this season, matching their total from the 2017 season. The 19 goals are supplied by eight different Broncos,
Alyssa Burke (4),
Bailey Korhorn (4), Hanna Kahn (3) and
Morgan Otteson (3) each have at least three goals so far this season. Junior midfielder
Grace Labadie has two, but has a team-high seven assists through 10 games.
ON THE HORIZON
The Broncos return home to host Miami on Thursday, Oct. 4 at 4 p.m. before traveling to Ball State on Sunday, Oct. 7. Thursday's game can be seen live on ESPN+.
