Women’s soccer opened their field to start season play on Saturday against North Dakota. Shantea Adams-Yeats scored a low roller in the right corner of the goal, to give the Wolverines the lead and set the tone of the game early.
“We took control of this game from the beginning,” said forward Jenni Clogh. “I think against Dixie, the first half we didn’t come out and make it our game; we played Dixie’s game. But in this game, from the beginning, North Dakota was playing our game.”
The first half was controlled defensively by UVU’s midfield and full backs. North Dakota struggled to gain possession of the ball in the game because of UVU’s quick pressure.
Starting out the second half 1-0, the Wolverines played their game of possession soccer. Putting the pressure on North Dakota was Clough, Nicole Archibald, Jennifer Lohner, and Shantae Adams-Yeats. Along with that pressure, Katey Turner had two goals taken away because she was off side.
North Dakota answered with Lauren Herrmann who blasted a shot 20 yards away that looked like a for sure goal until Mallory Schott made a diving save that took away North Dakota’s opportunity to tie it up.
Still being 1-0, the Wolverines took control by making adjustments offensively. Nicole Archibald, a sophomore from Sky View, added one to the scoreboard. Fifteen seconds later passing all defense, Turner connected with Jennifer Lohner to make it 3-0 for the Wolverines. Again Turner crossed from the far left to Lohner, who scored her second goal of the season.
Coach Anderson explained that the difference has been, “Finishing opportunities. Sometimes in games you only create two or three scoring opportunities and you need to make the best of them. Today, fortunately, we created more and the girls finished them off.”
Jennifer Lohner, a sophomore from Timpanogos High School said, “Our whole focus has been keeping possession and just building it up from the back and keeping possession of the ball. Last game we struggled. We were on and off with keeping the ball. So this game our focus was no matter what, keep possession of the ball.” Which is what they did, to take away North Dakota’s opportunity to score.
The game couldn’t have ended better. Jenni Clough showed why she was conference MVP, faking out two defenders and scoring in the last few minutes of the game. Jenni Clough said that practice has played a part why they won, “We’ve been working on just finishing and we’ve been working on a lot of crossing games.”
Coach Anderson said about the team, “They can sit back and take a look at what we’ve done and realize it’s not good enough — make those adjustments and then put them into action.”
