INDIANAPOLIS - Saint Mary's Women's Soccer was named the NCAA Soccer Women's Team of the Week for September 12 after going 2-0 in their Washington road trip, including an upset of No. 15 Washington State and racking up six goals against Eastern Washington.
CAGING THE COUGARS
The Gaels shut out out Washington State 1-0 to hand them their first loss of the season.It was SMC's first win over a top-25 ranked team since 2011 when they beat No. 11 UC Irvine.
The Gaels wasted no time letting the Cougars know they were there to play, with
Briana Salvetti's hustle goal in the third minute proving to be the game winner. Washington State played the ball back to their keeper Nadia Cooper in the third minute after some initial pressure from
Kyllie Glock, just expecting a ho-hum, run of the mill set up from her.
But Salvetti applied pressure by remaining in Cooper's space, continuing to pursue possession and forcing her to dribble away from Salvetti. That led to Cooper fumbling the ball between her legs and losing her footing which allowed Salvetti to come up with the ball. In one motion the Gaels leading scorer thumped the ball into the back of the net for her fourth goal of the season and just like that it was a 1-0 lead for Saint Mary's.
That goal would be SMC's only shot on frame of their eight taken, but they would make it stick.
Taylor Poland was solid in goal, making five saves for her second shutout of the season and 19th as a Gael.
GROUNDING THE EAGLES
The six goals SMC scored against Eastern Washington are the second-most in a single game in program history, just behind the seven goals scored in October of 1994 against Gonzaga.
The Gaels actually trailed early on in the game, allowing Eastern Washington to take a 1-0 lead, but Saint Mary's would answer in the 23rd. A Gaels corner was headed out of the box by EWU, but the ball ended up on the feet of
Savannah Schwarze who took two touches and fired it low past the keeper.
That equalizer would be just the beginning, as the Gaels would score again 10 minutes later on
Emmie Ennis' first collegiate goal. Same for
Sydney Middaugh in the 38th minute to make it 3-1 Gaels going into the half. Schwarze would score again go up 4-1 in the 55th minute.
EWU would score just two minutes later to bring it back to a two-goal lead, and put another in the back of the net in the 63rd minute to cut it to a one-goal game, But The Gaels were able to regain their two-goal on a pair of penalty kicks by Salvetti for the 6-3 win. The two-goal games were both career firsts for Schwarze and Salvetti.
