he Creighton women’s soccer team extended its winning streak to six in thrilling fashion with an overtime win against the University of Montana Grizzlies.
The Jays are now 6-2 on the season and have scored 24 goals goals through eight games. During last year’s 3-13-3 campaign, Creighton scored just 18 goals in the entire 19-game season. Eleven players have already scored this year compared to 10 total last year. Only four payers scored more than one goal last season and the Jays were led by the six goals of Brittney Neumann. This season, seven players have already scored two or more goals, including sophomore midfielder/ forward Kirstyn Corder and freshman forward Paige Jarsombeck who have five and four goals respectively.
“It’s a relief,” sophomore forward/ midfielder Alyssa Jara said. “Winning feels good. Last year, we don’t want to talk about it ever again. It’s a new year and we are very happy that we can come out with a better result.”
The success is building confidence in the players, which is leading to even more success for the Jays.
“The fact that we’re scoring so many goals and we’re getting so many wins, especially at home, is just increasing our confidence,” sophomore defender/ forward Kyla Booker said. “Especially at practice, we really get at it, at games we push to the very end and that’s what we did [against Montana].”
Three women were honored by the Big East for their play from this past week. Freshman Emily Roll was named Big East Defensive Player of the Week after anchoring a defense that gave up just one goal in three games over the course of the week. Freshman Danielle Rice was named Big East Goalkeeper of the Week as well, after recording her first two solo shut- outs and recording 13 saves in the three wins. Senior forward Lauren Cingoranelli was named to the Big East Honor Roll after recording five points (two goals and one assist) in Creighton’s 4-0 win against South Dakota. Unfortuntely, Cingoranelli went down with an injury early in the game against Montana and did not return.
The Jays welcomed the Grizzlies to Morrison Stadium on Sunday afternoon and came from behind late to pull out a 2-1 overtime win.
The first half was mostly uneventful as the Jays struggled to get their offense going without Cignorelli and Jarsombeck (out with an injury), the team’s second and third leading scorers. The two teams headed to the locker rooms with a scoreless tie. Montana out-shot Creighton 7-6 in the first 45 minutes.
The Jays opened the second half with a flurry of shots and corner kicks but wasn’t able to get past Montana’s senior goalkeeper, Kendra McMillen.
Montana struck first in the 67th minute as junior midfielder Stephanie Carl punched it in when the Jays failed to clear the ball following a Montana corner kick.
With time quickly running out, the Jays picked up the pressure and finally broke through the Grizzlies’ defense in the 87th minute. Jara sent the ball into the box off of a corner cross and Booker managed to get a foot on it and flip it into the goal to tie the game at one goal apiece. Both teams held in the final minutes and the game went to overtime.
The extra period was brief and all Creighton. Freshman defender/ midfielder
Ylenia Sachau got off the first shot of overtime on a header just over three minutes in, but the ball sailed on her. Just 36 seconds later, Corder flew into the box and put the ball in the net to lift Creighton to victory.
“We just came out a different team in the second half,” head coach Bruce Erickson said. “That really was the difference. It was a bit unfortunate that we didn’t get one in the first 15 minutes there when we had a lot of chances and hit the post and everything and then they kind of score … We made an adjustment, brought Kyla back on to do what, ultimately, she did. It was good to see her get the goal. And then we felt like in overtime we really needed to push for the game-winner. We had the momentum.”
On Friday, Creighton cruised past an overmatched University of South Dakota team 4-0 at Morrison Stadium.
The Jays were led by Cingoranelli, who notched two goals and an assist in the match. She had the first goal of the match in the 28th minute off of an assist from junior midfielder Stephanie Anasi.
The score remained 1-0 in Creighton’s favor until the Jays experienced an offensive explosion in the second half.
In the 48th minute, Cingoranelli finished off a pass from sophomore midfielder/ forward Alyssa Kohmetscher for her second tally of the day.
Sachau scored the third goal in the 84th minute. Corder capped off the scoring in the 88th minute of play.
The Creighton women’s soccer team’s next game will be Sept. 20 when the Bluejays host the University of Nebraska at Omaha Mavericks in Morrison Stadium. Kickoff for the game begins at 7 p.m..