The Wolverines struck quickly and held their poise, scoring a late goal to pull out a 2-1 win against the Griffins of Westminster. 2009 All-Conference player Jamie Lyons, scored in the 17th minute to give Utah Valley University the 1-0 lead. She was assisted on the play by Shaylane Janis, on a corner kick.
The Griffins would not tie the game until the 58th minute, but the Wolverines would quickly answer back. With only 16 minutes to play, and only five minutes after the contest was knotted up, Regan Clifford scored a goal just inside the far post. The goal was assisted by Haley Curtis off of a Griffins turnover.
The Wolverines played in their annual Green and White scrimmage Friday night, in front of a good crowd, under the new lights on their home field. Monday’s match against Westminster was the first chance of the season for Anderson’s girls to test themselves.
“Today was good opportunity to get out and get a look at everybody and see how they worked together,” said head coach Brent Anderson. “I thought we played hard but we do have a young team and it’s going to take some time.”
The first goal was scored by a returning sophomore, and the game winner came from a junior, affirming Anderson’s sentiments about needing time to work together. Clifford and Lyons bring live game experience to a team which lacks having real game time together. Their knowledge of what it takes to play collegiate soccer will be vital to the success of the team this year.
“We are young, and we’ll need Regan and Jamie to step up along with our other returners,” Anderson said in an earlier interview. “It’s hard to know how they’ll play together until they get a chance to play in live action.”
Three young goal keepers took a shot in the net against the Griffins. 2010 conference player of the year Lauren Sack, played the first 45 minutes, racking up 3 saves and not allowing a goal. Westminster’s Margo Hickman, scored on an unassisted goal just inside the far post from 20 yards out, against red-shirt freshman Jadeshia Colebrook.
Colebrook was in net for 26 minutes before being relieved by true freshman Jessica Duffin. Duffin posted one save, and no goals against to finish out the game.
The Wolverines welcome in Portland State Friday night, kicking off a string of four straight games at home.
Jonathan Boldt can be reached at jonboldt@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @jboldt24
