No. 4 Women's Soccer Keeps on Rolling With Win at LMU

No. 4 Women's Soccer Keeps on Rolling With Win at LMU

LOS ANGELES – After trailing at the half, No. 4 Santa Clara women's soccer scored a pair of second half goals to push its unbeaten streak to eight (7-0-1) and it's WCC winning streak to nine with a 3-2 victory at LMU Friday night.

The Lions (3-6-4, 1-1-1 WCC) applied pressure to the Broncos (11-1-1, 2-0 WCC) from the opening whistle, and despite falling behind early, answered back with two goals to hold a 2-1 lead after the first 45 minutes.

"The good news is that we got a come-from-behind road win in conference play and we're really happy about scoring three goals," Santa Clara head coach Jerry Smith said. "We're disappointed that, like last week, we gave up some bad goals at the back of our team so that's the number one thing we'll be working on. In spite of that, we were pleased with some aspects of the game tonight."

Freshman Skylar Smith led the way for Santa Clara with a pair of goals, the first multi-goal game of her career, and Kelcie Hedge added her third in two matches for the game-winner late in the game.

A cross from Kelsey Turnbow was sent to Hedge near the left post of the goal in the 79th minute that she was able to get a toe on and poke past LMU keeper Charlee Pruitt.

"The game-winning goal was just fantastic," Smith said. " It was an unbelievable cross from Kelsey Turnbow and the effort by Kelcie Hedge to get on the end of the ball was terrific. It was one of our best goals of the year."

Smith opened the scoring in the 13th minute off a nice cross from Turnbow who dribbled down the left side of the field before sending a cross into the box that, after a deflection, Smith poked off the hands of the LMU keeper.

Smith's second of the night came in the 59th minute off a Broncos corner that the Lions couldn't clear. She got to the ball and banged it off the crossbar to even the score at 2-all.

"I'm really happy for Skylar Smith for scoring a pair of goals tonight," Smith said. "She was hurt all week but showed up when it mattered."

Just seconds after the Broncos took a 1-0 lead, the Lions evened the score off a long free kick by Maki Kono that caught Melissa Lowder off her line.

Right before the break, the Lions took the lead in the 42nd minute off a scramble in front of the box. An LMU corner kick was knocked around in a sea of bodies before Simone Handy was able to knock a shot into the back of the net to make it 2-1.

NOTES

  • Santa Clara is now 21-4-1 all-time against LMU and has won the last seven meetings.
  • The Broncos put 11 of their 18 shots on goal and held the Lions to just five shots and two on target.
  • Despite allowing three goals, Pruitt collected eight saves in the game.
  • This is Santa Clara's longest winning streak in WCC play since also winning 19 from 1997-2000.

UP NEXT
The Broncos finish their road swing at Pepperdine Sunday at 1 p.m.

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