6-0 Victory against Crown College

It was a great night, claiming our first win of the season against Crown College with a thrilling 6-0 scoreline.   The girls came out a little slow, but once they found their footing and began to work the ball around a bit, really began threatening the back line of Crown College with excellent runs up the sidelines by our midfielders to threaten the space all around our attacking third.

Opening the score sheet for the Gusties was freshman, Molly Johnston, with an aggressive run through the box to clean up a deflection off of a Maddisson Ackiss shot on goal.

It was great to see players pressing into attacking areas from all areas of the field, being a threat at any moment in the game.  Our two outside backs had phenomenal work rates to push up the field, getting around our midfielders and strikers into area up the field to send in crosses left and right across the box, creating many of our chances in the second half!

Maddisson had another stunning night on the field, recording a whopping three goals on the night.  Her first coming off of an eagle eye pass from freshman Hannah Sturtz, which she calmly placed perfectly into the top corner of the goal on her first touch. Her second goal came from an absolutely stunning free kick, curling it around a Crown College wall right into the top corner of the goal past the keeper. Her third goal, sealing the hat trick for the night, came off of a seemingly impossible pass that came in off a first touch pass from senior Heather Geoff, threading the needle through the Crown defense to send Maddi in 1v1 with the keeper.

Also, recording her first goal of the season, was freshman, Sophie Leininger.  After being rewarded a penalty kick early in the second half, Sophie confidently stepped up to the penalty mark; was cooler than the other side of the pillow as the placed her kick directly into the bottom corner of the net.

The coaching staff was unbelievably impressed with our substitutes coming in off of the bench and stepping up to have huge impacts on the game.  Hannah Sturtz was able to cause complete mayhem in our attacking third, creating space for players to work and open up great shots on goal. Senior Valerie Belanger came in and had astounding runs up the side of the field, consistently whipping in dangerous balls across the Crown goal, nearly creating numerous goals for our players rushing in through the box behind the opposing back line.

It was an incredibly exciting match to watch, as the girls are beginning to step into a rhythm with one another and knocking the ball around very well amongst each other. We’re hoping to feed off of this attacking-minded momentum as we step back into conference play this Saturday, as the girls head to St. Joseph to face up against the College of Saint Benedict, kicking off at 1pm.

Women’s Soccer Posts First Win In 6-0 Victory Over Crown

Posted on September 23rd, 2014 by Nick Hoelmer

Maddisson Ackiss completed a hat-trick to help secure the Gustie's first victory of the season.

St. Bonifacius, Minn. – After spending its first six matches searching for a victory, the Gustavus Adolphus women’s soccer team found it in a big way in its seventh match. The Gusties defeated Crown College 6-0 in a non-conference matchup  on Tuesday evening at KleinBank Stadium to bump their record to 1-4-2 (0-2-0 MIAC) on the season and give themselves a shot of confidence heading into their third MIAC match on Saturday against the College of Saint Benedict.

“This was an exciting game that featured a lot of attacking opportunities and high pressure up top,” said head coach Laura Burnett-Kurie. “It’s great to get the first win of the year. We broke the ice and hopefully they will keep coming.”

The Gusties were on the board less than ten minutes into the game when first-year midfielder Molly Johnston (Mendota Heights, Minn.) finished off a deflection off of Storm goalkeeper Hillary Brondsema at the 7:40 mark. The goal was the first of the season scored by a Gustie not named Maddison Ackiss and also came with the Gustie’s first assist on the season, which went to Ackiss.

No more scoring occurred until late in the first half when Ackiss found the net for what would be her first of three goals on the evening off an assist from first-year forward Hannah Sturtz (Plymouth, Minn.). A minute into the second half, Gustavus earned its third goal of the evening when a Crown blunder resulted in an own-goal. Ten minutes later, Ackiss found the net for a second time off a 25 yard free kick and six minutes after that, Sophie Leininger (Fy., Plymouth, Minn.) made it a 5-0 Gustie lead by taking advantage of a penalty kick. Ackiss then put the icing on the cake when she completed a hat-trick at the 69:48 mark for her team-leading sixth goal of the season.

The Gusties shattered their season high of 13 shots by shooting a whopping 38 on Tuesday compared to Crown’s four. “We had a lot of good movement off the ball,” said Burnett-Kurie. “It was great to see, for the second game in a row, the depth of our bench and it was also cool to see a couple of our first-years get their first collegiate goals.”

Caroline Olson (Sr., York, Penn.) enjoyed a quiet night between the posts by making one save in all ninety minutes to pick up her first victory of the season.

The Gusties will now look for their first MIAC win this Saturday when they take on Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, Minnesota. That match is slated for a 1 p.m. start time.