The Gustie Women’s Soccer team pulled out two close games on Saturday and Monday as a result of some stellar defense.
The Gusties edged out Saint Mary’s 2-1 on Saturday, as Junior Katie Ashpole scored both goals for Gustavus. This was Gustavus’s first win of the year, after dropping their first five games.
The game started on an unfortunate note, as an injury in the first minute resulted in a 15-minute injury timeout. Shortly after, Saint Mary’s scored near the seven-minute mark.
Soon after the goal, lightning struck nearby. This led to the game being delayed 30 minutes.
After the game break, Ashpole scored her first goal, assisted by Junior Taylor Hemme.
After a back and forth second half, Sophomore Rachel Rehnelt assisted Ashpole in the 87th minute for her second goal of the game.
That goal proved to be the deciding factor, as Gustavus was able to hold off Saint Mary’s in the last few minutes to secure the win. This was the Cardinals second loss of the year, as they fall to 4-2 overall and 0-2 in the conference.
Saturday was the Gusties best offensive showing so far this season, as they set season highs in assists and goals.
The Gusties were aggressive offensively throughout the game, as they outshot Saint Mary’s 16-8 in the contest. This was also a new season high for Gustavus.
As a result of a good defensive showing, Senior goalkeeper Ashley Becker had to make only two saves, which tied a season low.
Head Coach Laura Burnett-Kurie was happy with the Gusties effort on Saturday and is looking forward to the next game.
“We know that our belief had to come before the result and that showed today. Everyone put in full effort and we’re excited to roll this momentum into Monday,” Burnett-Kurie said.
That momentum did indeed roll into Monday, as the Gusties beat Northwestern-St. Paul 2-1 with another fantastic defensive showing.
The Gusties quickly took the lead with a goal in the tenth minute from Rehnelt, assisted by Senior Abby Mullenbach. Near the 20-minute mark, Mullenbach got a goal of her own, courtesy of a nice crossing pass into the box from Hemme.
Burnett-Kurie was happy with her team’s offensive play in the game, and hopes to see that continue in the future.
“We created a lot of dangerous opportunities today, we got on the board early with two great goals. Unfortunately, we gave up a goal late in the first half. We refocused at halftime and created a lot of very dangerous chances in the second half. We were creative in the attack and committed numbers going forward. We need to continue to create these dangerous opportunities moving forward and hopefully put the ball in the back of the net more often. A lot of good things from this game and a big shout out to Northwestern for battling as hard as they did,” Burnett-Kurie said.
The Gustie defense held strong in the second half, as they did not concede a goal and allowed only one shot. They also kept scoring opportunities low, as they did not allow a corner kick in the game.
After a slow start to the season, Gustavus has put together two nice wins and is looking to keep it going throughout the next few games.
“I think the biggest factor in our recent success is everyone’s willingness to buy-in to our team’s core values. We have had a lot of hard conversations about what we want to get out of this season and one of the major values of our team is work ethic. I think that everyone has been willing to have a really good work ethic, both in practices and games, and this has led to a lot of our recent success,” Ashpole said when asked about what has contributed to the recent success.
Ashpole was happy with the results of the last two games, but knows that there is still work to do.
“I think we need to keep pushing. While having two wins feel great, we can’t become complacent. We have to keep working hard and go into every game knowing that it’s not going to be given to us. We need to work hard and battle every game to get results,” Ashpole said.
The Gusties will try to carry the momentum into their next game, as they play at St. Catherine at 1 p.m. on Saturday.