Of course for Webber, because they are NAIA and are playing against an NCAA DI team, the game did not count as a season game and was listed as an exhibition game. For FGCU, the game is listed as a season game, but will not effect their RPI ranking.
Sophomore Melissa Weck was the starting goalkeeper for FGCU while senior Sarah McKinney started for Webber.
FGCU had four goals in both halves and were effective offensively and defensively.
24 minutes into the first half, junior Camille Knudstrup started with a header for the first goal of the game with an assist from sophomore Marjorie "Ma" Boilesen. Knudstrup's goal was her first goal of the season.
It took 23 seconds later for the second goal to occur as senior Varin Ness got a touch pass and scored the second goal, her third goal of the season, with assists from Boilesen and graduate student Kiana Rugar.
After a Webber yellow card was issued to freshman Isabella Aviolla, and a blocked penalty shot attempt from senior Lauren Greene, redshirt senior Nikki Hudson scored the third goal of the match, her first of the season, with an assist from Knudstrup.
45 seconds later, junior Holly Fritz would score the fourth goal of the match, her third of the season, with assists from Greene and redshirt freshman Jocelyn Nelson before the end of the first half.
Before the second half, Weck was replaced by redshirt junior Elyse Hansen to play the entire second half.
14 minutes into the second half, Ness would score the fifth goal, her fourth of the season and second in the game with an assist from freshman Cassidy Morgan.
One minute later, Boilesen would scored the sixth goal of the game on a penalty kick. The goal for the West Florida transfer was her sixth goal of the season.
Three minutes later, senior Meaghan Mulligan would pass to an open redshirt senior Paige Law for a chipper for the seventh goal of the game and Law's first goal of the season.
With 10:25 left in the second half, the most eye-catching moment happened with sophomore Silvana "Silv" Gordon. As she got the ball, two warriors started chasing her to get the ball. As Gordon attempted a cross shot, she then finessed and faked out the two players not once, but twice. I haven't seen that in a long while since senior men's soccer player Jiro Barriga Toyama's finess goal shot last year. It was awesome.
With less than 10 minutes left in the game, Rugar would seal the deal with the final goal, her second of the season, with assists from Morgan and freshman Hope Van Wagner.
Afterwards, the whole bench was emptied for FGCU as Greene, Gordon, fellow sophomores, Petra Smetkova and Emilie Olsen, freshmen Zoey Spitzer, Kavina Ganeshan and Lauren Moss, and juniors Shay Jackson and Ashley Blanchard entered/reentered the game. Redshirt senior Ashley Parks was the only Eagle that remained in the second half.
Both Weck and Hansen did not give up any goals in 45 minutes each.
McKinney gave up all eight goals and had 13 saves.
Ness would be the only Eagle to score more than one goal in the game. Ness shot three times with all of them on goal.
Boilesen and Morgan finished with two assists each. Knudstrup, Rugar, Nelson, Greene, Mulligan, and Van Wagner had one assist each.
The Eagles took 45 shots, which is now a program record while the Warriors took only two. Freshman Marianna Scine and junior Luiza Oliveira had the Warriors lone shots in the match.
The eight goals FGCU produced was the third highest in program history and the highest amount since 2011.
"This weekend was all about getting back to normal," said head coach Jim Blankenship. "A little bit was trying to get back and assess what was going on at home and get back to a normal life. On the bright side, we had this game on Monday otherwise we may not have got this in. I'm very happy with the effort tonight. They came out with a purpose and once they connected some passes and got the goal we felt like more would come."
The Eagles did not get back to campus until early Friday evening after being scheduled to arrive back from Arizona on Monday. Because of Hurricane Irma, the Eagles remained in Arizona, but greeted their home fans with a tremendous offensive showing.
"In Arizona, they (the University of Arizona) let us train on our field, so we were able to not miss a day," said Law. "I think it helped us more because it was very, very hot, and we were not use to it."
"We came off the field, and it was 102°, and we were just like 'we are never complaining about the Florida heat, so we were well prepared coming back, the travel day was long, but we got right after it when we landed."
"We were fortunate to be in Arizona this past week," Blankenship added. "They absolutely took care of us. We tried to keep a little bit of normalcy even though every second of the day the kids are watching tv or checking their phones to check in on family members. We were safe and together and now we're back home in front of our fans."
With that, FGCU will begin conference away by playing Stetson in Deland on Saturday at 7 pm.
Below are pics with me and some of the soccer players after the game:
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| From left to right: Ashley Parks, Marjorie Boilesen, me, Nikki Hudson and Lauren Greene |
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| With Shay Jackson |
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| From left to right: freshmen Cassidy Morgan, Kavina Ganeshan and Lauren Moss |
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