WKU soccer runs Murray St. out of Bowling Green, wins 7-1

For whatever reason, mother nature didn’t want WKU and Murray St. to have an easy time in playing their soccer game. But, the game did finish, and when it was all said and done, the Lady Tops had a walk in the rainy park, defeating the Murray State Lady Racers 7-1 in the season’s final tune up before the season gets underway this Friday. For MSU, it was their only exhibition match, and it certainly showed.

While it was a low scoring affair on Friday, and a WKU win was secured by staunch defense in the closing minutes, head coach Jason Niedell did note how well his team played in their first game, and he must be jumping out of his shoes with how they played today. WKU had five goal scorers – Hannah Chua, Loren Moats and Sarah Gorham each netted one, while Shayna Dheel and Kelly Phipps both scored a pair each.

It was another game in which the Tops had early scoring (although, in a six goal game, timing of the goals don’t necessarily matter), but the opening goal came came less than four minutes after first touch, the first of Dheel’s on the day, and it was assisted by Bria Mosley again, who had the assist on the lone goal Friday. Dheel then scored the second goal in the 20th minute, and after that, it was a free for all. The only saving grace for Murray State was a goal in the 22nd minute to keep the game from being a shutout. The game ended in a true scoring frenzy, with the Lady Tops finding the back of the net three times in a span of two minutes – both of Phipps’ and Gorham’s scores – to put the game at it’s finishing 7-1 score. The Lady Toppers outshot Murray by a 19-13 margin, which is a more than welcome sign after Friday.

Playing in net today again was Allison Leone, who certainly deserved to be in, but I was very much expecting to see the other freshman keeper, Alex Hoefler, get the start, and have the two split the exhibitions to determine who’ll start the season. I guess it’s safe to say Leone will start Friday? But I also thought Hoefler would start today, so what do I know?

This is it for games “that don’t matter,” and the two teams will kick off their 2014 campaigns on Friday. WKU will travel to Lipscomb while the Racers will face our old pals in Arkansas State.