Lady Bucs sweep through the weekend, outscoring their opponents 7-0

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (September 25, 2011) – The ETSU women’s soccer team picked up right where it left off from Friday, scoring three goals to defeat UNC Asheville, 3-0, on Sunday afternoon at Summers-Taylor Stadium.

“We’re very happy with today’s performance,” said head coach Adam Sayers. “We wanted to continue our good work from Friday into today, and I thought the girls certainly did that. We started very well as Genna Petersen scored early. It was a very good game overall.”

Senior goalkeeper Caitlin Gaughan (Indianapolis, Ind.) made a career-high 10 saves off 19 shots faced, stopping Asheville’s relentless attack from the outside. Throughout the game, Asheville constantly took shots from around the box to try and break Gaughan, but the senior keeper met challenge after challenge en route to her fourth shutout of the season.

ETSU (6-3-0) backed up its keeper by scoring a pair of early goals to put little to chance. Keeping the pressure back on Asheville’s defense, the Lady Bucs forced 22 shots and got 13 on goal.

Asheville (1-8-0) found itself in a hole early, and could never begin to climb out. The Bulldogs went down a goal eight minutes into the game, and before the first half was 20 minutes old, the Lady Bucs tacked on another to take a comfortable lead.

The Lady Bucs’ eighth minute goal was generated from the team’s two leading goal scorers. Freshman Jenna Caudle (Middletown, Md.) had the ball on the attack and found senior Genna Petersen (Loveland, Ohio) running forward with a through ball. When the senior got hold of the pass, nobody except Asheville’s keeper, Heather Muller, was in front. As Muller came out, Petersen shot left and buried her fourth goal of the season.

The assist was Caudle’s first of the year, as the freshman has now scored a point in seven-consecutive games for the Lady Bucs.

11 minutes later, the bells tolled at Summers-Taylor Stadium as sophomore Samantha Kron (Paradise Valley, Ariz) lined up for her second corner kick of the game. All ready having registered two assists and a goal off corners this year, Kron added to her total as her corner found the head of fellow classmate Lucy Goffe (Birmingham, England) for the goal.

The goal was Goffe’s second of the season, and less than 20 minutes into the game the Lady Bucs seemed in control with a, 2-0, lead.

Following ETSU’s second goal, Asheville’s game plan became evident. Every time the Bulldogs got the ball near the box they decided to test Gaughan by taking shots from 18 to 25 yards out, but Gaughan handled every chance thrown at her. The senior keeper got a lot of work in through the half, but saved all eight shots Asheville put on goal.

At the half, ETSU led, 2-0, but trailed Asheville, 12-10, in shots. The two squads split corners, 3-3, while the Lady Bucs held the, 8-3, advantage in saves.

Petersen added to her day 14 minutes into the second period. Asheville had the ball in its own box as one of its passes was deflected, and Petersen took control. Looking for her second multi-goal game of the year, the senior fired from 15 yards out across Muller and in just behind the left post.

The Lady Bucs led, 3-0, and the remaining 31 minutes played out in favor of ETSU. Freshman Kristi Davis (Edmond, Okla.) and sophomore Kayla White (Virginia Beach, Va.) nearly scored multiple times through the final minutes, but Muller saved any further damage.

Winners of five of its last six games, the ETSU women’s soccer team will head to Nashville, Tenn. next weekend and return to its conference schedule as they face Lipscomb on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Belmont on Sunday at 1:00 p.m.

The ETSU athletic department encourages fans to come out to the next ETSU home game and participate in the Wendy’s Win promotion. With today’s win, fans in attendance received a coupon for free food at Wendy’s, and the same will happen for every ETSU home win.

For more information on ETSU women’s soccer, please visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the women’s soccer links. Fans can also follow the Lady Bucs on Facebook at ETSU Buccaneer Women’s Soccer.