Ashland Wins At Malone, Stays Tied Atop Great Midwest Table

On Saturday (Oct. 2) afternoon at Malone, Ashland University's women's soccer team remained tied atop the Great Midwest Athletic Conference standings following a 4-1 victory.
 
The Eagles improve to 6-1-2 overall and 5-0-1 in the Great Midwest after their third consecutive victory, while the Pioneers are 0-5-2, 0-3-1.
 
"Every week, we're slowly getting better and better," said Ashland head coach Cayleb Paulino. "We're creating more chances. Today and on Thursday, we're getting more comfortable in the final third and getting chance after chance and putting some away."
 
Ashland has scored four goals in back-to-back games, the first such distinction for the Eagles since Oct. 25 and 27, 2019 (four and five goals, respectively).
 
WHAT HAPPENED

• The Eagles broke the scoreless tie in the 21^st minute, as senior forward/midfielder Bri Fourman potted her first goal of the fall campaign, on a feed from junior forward Bailey Clark, for her first assist of the fall. In the 32^nd minute, AU upped its advantage to 2-0 when freshman midfielder Sabrina Trapani scored her first collegiate goal, on the first collegiate assist from freshman forward/midfielder Julianna Williams.
• Ashland didn't take long in the second half to extend its lead to 3-0, as Clark scored her second goal of the season in the 50^th minute, unassisted.
• "She's been huge for us," Paulino said of Clark. "She's creating a lot of thing for us, not necessarily on the stat line."
• Clark said, "I think we played amazing as a whole. It's great to see it come together. We're playing some really good soccer. One of the biggest things is set pieces. We're really good at winning them, getting down there and being dangerous."
• Freshman forward/midfielder McKinley Mendenhall then scored her team-high fourth goal of the season in the 55^th minute for a 4-0 separation, as senior midfielder Hannah Mueller picked up assist No. 2 of the campaign.
• Malone spoiled the shutout in the 82^nd minute when Madeleine Ault scored to put the Pioneers on the board.
• Ashland fired 26 shots on Saturday to Malone's three, and had all 10 corner kicks in the contest.
• Junior goalkeeper Bri Rogers stopped two shots in improving to 6-0-1.

 
UP NEXT
Ashland returns home to Ferguson Field on Thursday (Oct. 7) at 7 p.m. to take on Ohio Dominican (1-5-2, 1-2-2).
 
"We take it week by week. The goal every week is to go 2-0," Paulino said. "No game is going to be easy. I think the girls are looking forward to the opportunity to play ODU again."