AVE MARIA, Fla. — The Ave Maria University women's soccer team was victorious Saturday night, as they defeated the University of Pikeville Bears 2-0 at Gyrene Field. The Gyrenes scored both of their goals in the first half, and then held on in the second half to win the game. The win marked Ave Maria's fifth consecutive shutout, and increased Ave Maria's unbeaten streak to five to conclude non-conference play.
While the game was initially set to start around 7 pm, the game did not officially kick off until 8:50 due to lightning and heavy rain delaying the men's game that started before the women's game.
AMU had control of the game for most of the first half, as the Gyrenes out shot the Bears 9-1 in the first 45 minutes of the game. That offensive pressure culminated in a Madelyn Krause goal, with the assist going to Liz Wolf. Wolf shot the ball just above the goal box but hit the crossbar. Fortunately, Krause was crashing the net, and was able to steal the ball from UPike's goalie Elizabeth Lukens and jammed the ball into the net for Ave Maria's first goal. It was Krause's second goal of the season, tying her with Wolf, for the moment, for most goals on the team.
Wolf, however, would regain her title as the goal leader for AMU about six minutes later with her third goal of the season. After stealing the ball from a Bears defender, Wolf blasted a shot about 25 yards away that flew by Lukens and found the back of the net to make it 2-0 in favor of Ave Maria. AMU then held on to take their 2-0 lead into halftime.
In the second period, the shots were a little more even between the two teams, with Ave Maria registering 11 shots and Pikeville recording seven. Both goalies were able to stop everything that was thrown at them however, keeping the score 2-0 when the clock hit zero.
Gyrenes goal Maddie Samuelson was excellent Saturday night, stopping all four shots she faced for her fourth complete shutout of the season.
With the win, Ave Maria improves to 3-2-3 and done with all the out-of-conference games for the season. The Gyrenes will take a two-week rest period before start SUN Conference action Saturday, October 1, when the host the SCAD Bees.
