Soccer Goes Undefeated This Weekend
Utah State women’s soccer won both of its conference games over the weekend, topping Wyoming 2-0 Friday and Colorado State 1-0 on Sunday. The Aggies currently stand at 6-4-2 for the season and 2-1-1 in the Mountain West Conference and are currently tied with Air Force for the No. 4 spot.
Utah State opened up the weekend against the Cowgirls, maintaining possession throughout most of the first half. The Aggies had a couple opportunities to change the 0-0 score but were denied by the Cowgirls defense and a struggle to put their shots on frame.
In the 29th minute, Cowgirls goalkeeper Georgia Rowntree went down with an ankle injury and had to step out for the remainder of the game. With the change of goalies, the Aggies played aggressively, creating an an opportunity to score in the 42nd minute after drawing a foul and setting up a free kick on goal. Forward Ambryn McCallson stepped up to take the shot for the Aggies, and kicked it around defenders into the right hand side of the net to score the first goal of the half.
The Cowgirls had five shots on goal and the Aggies had seven shots leading 1-0 into the half.
The second half got underway and the Aggies wasted no time in scoring their second goal of the match. Midfielder Bailee Hammond had an unassisted goal in the first three minutes of the second half, her first collegiate goal. The Cowgirls attempted to regain their momentum by firing two shots on goal but they were saved by junior goalkeeper Jeannie Woller. The Aggies maintained their 2-0 lead until the end of the match.
The Cowgirls ended the game with seven shots on goal and the Aggies with 15.
“It was a light match,” said head coach Heather Cairns. “Going into halftime, we thought we’d have a really good first half, but we knew we needed to have a better second half. Those first five minutes of the second half are really key, so I was really stoked about the way we handled that.”
Coach Cairns expressed her happiness with Hammond’s goal in the second half.
“Wesley [Hamblin] got perfectly behind them and gave it to Bailee for her first collegiate goal. Bailee was completely composed and just tucked it away.” Cairns said.
The second game of the weekend saw the Aggies take on Colorado State.
It was a scoreless game for both teams for more than 84 minutes. A battle to keep possession and try to score showed throughout the whole game. The only opportunity of the match came when midfielder Wesley Hamblin lofted a ball to forward Ambryn Mccallson who fired a shot into the corner of the net to make it a 1-0 lead in the second half.
The match ended with Utah State dominating the shots with nine of the 19 shots being on goal. The Colorado State Rams recorded five shots for the entire match.
Coach Cairns was pleased with the defensive work of her team.
“I thought we did well to stay organized defensively,” Cairns said. “The attacking third was a little bit tough for us today, but I thought the team did a good job of staying optimistic. That was a game we had to grind out today. That was a hard three points that we just earned, they put up a fight and made things tough for us.”
Cairns was also happy with the players coming off her bench to make a difference during the game like McCallson did this weekend.
“Ambryn has two game winners and is hot right now,” Cairns said. “She’s doing fantastic things off the bench for us. She’s really seizing her opportunities and helping us out in the attack. The players around her are doing a good job of building up play and giving her the ball in the right spaces. Things are clicking in the attack. I was happy with the type of shots we created. We stayed optimistic and kept plugging away.”
The weekend puts Utah State at 6-4-2 for the season and 2-1-1 in Mountain West conference.
The Aggies continue their home stretch this weekend as they host San Jose State on Friday, October 10, at 3 p.m. and end on Sunday, October 12, at noon when they play Fresno State at the Chuck and Gloria Bell field.