Saint Leo Women’s Soccer concluded the weekend with two victories, winning their games against West Alabama University on Sept. 9 and Christians Brothers University on Sep. 11. Both of the games were hosted by Saint Leo University.
The Women’s soccer had a busy weekend in regards to the time the team had to spend on the soccer field as the Lions played two games with only one-day break in between. Nevertheless, despite the eventful schedule, the Lions took advantage of playing at their home field, and they managed to win both of the matches.
The Lions started their campaign on Friday by defeating West Alabama University and scoring two goals, while their opponents scored only one. The players who played the key roles in this victory were Senior Arielle Kabangu, and Senior Genevieve Gignac.
Kabangu scored the first goal for the Lions in the 27th minute of the match. It was one of the four shots fired by the player that evening. Before the first half of the game was completed, Gignac also had found a way to West Alabama’s goal and scored another point to put the Lions into the winning position with an overall score 2-0.
The result changed during the second half of the game as, in the 68th minute, Nina Coleman of West Alabama fired a shot into Saint Leo’s goal and cut the Lions’ lead to one point. The score remained unchanged until the end of the game, and thus, the Lions defeated their opponent with a final result 2-1.
Women’s soccer did not have a lot of time to celebrate their victory as two days later, on Sept. 11, the Lions once again gathered spectators on the University’s soccer field as the team played another match, this time with Christians Brothers University, Memphis, TN.
The Lions won the game with a final result 3-1 where three different players scored points for Saint Leo. During the match the Lions fired the total of 21 shots. Of the three successful tries that gave the team the victory the first shot found its way to the opponent’s net in the first half if the game while the remaining two points were scored during the second half.
Once again, Kabangu directly contributed to the final result scoring a goal in the 11th minute and giving the Lions an early lead in the game. During the second half of the match, Senior Rakeisha Sealey raised the lead to 2-0 as she scored another goal in the 60th minute. Junior Natalie Melillo assisted in both of the goals.
The final goal for the Lions was scored just two minutes later when Senior Selena Jaimes found a way to defeat Christians Brothers’ goalkeeper by taking a free kick. In the 69th minute, Ashton White scored the final goal of the game, and the only goal for the Lions’ opponents.
The match was one of the five consecutive games that had been planned to be held at the Saint Leo University’s soccer field. So far, the Lions have managed to win two of them. The only game that team has lost so far was concluded on Sept. 5, against Mississippi College. A match against Valdosta State that had been planned for Sept. 1 was postponed due to bad weather conditions.
The Lions in the 2016 SSC Women’s Soccer Preseason Coaches’ Poll were placed in the 5th place return to action on Sept. 14 to play with Eckerd College that in the same poll was placed in the 10th place.
Eckerd College is the first Sunshine State Conference team that the Lions meet this season. The Lions have scheduled 15 games this fall of which 8 is held by Saint Leo University. In order to receive the latest news about the season of the Women’s soccer, stay tuned to the Lions’ Pride Newspaper.
