Texas Women’s Soccer beats Incarnate Word 7-0
The Texas Women’s Soccer team won its exhibition game against Incarnate Word 7-0, on Friday evening. The dominating start to the 2014 season comes on the heels of former USA Olympic soccer player Kristine Lilly joining the team as a volunteer coach on Thursday.
“She has such a wealth of knowledge" head coach Angela Kelly said of Lilly joining the staff. "Kristine Lilly needs to be on a bench somewhere in this world and I’m just really grateful she’s on our bench to start off her coaching career. I have a fantastic staff, wonderful players in their own right and I’m fortunate to be here.”
SEE ALSO: Texas Women’s Soccer versus Incarnate World (PHOTO GALLERY)
This season marks Kelly’s third year as head coach of the Women’s Soccer team.
Texas scored its first goal less than ten minutes in, when sophomore defender Isabelle Kerr found the back of the net for her fist goal of her college career. Shortly after, junior forward, Kelsey Shimmick assisted senior midfielder Sharis Lacchappelle to score the second goal.
Texas had twenty corner kicks in the game. Twelve of the corner kicks in the first half were by sophomore midfielder, Julia Dyche.
“We generated a lot of corners, that’s for sure. That’s a good thing which created a lot of opportunities tonight. I can rest my leg tomorrow,” Dyche said.
In the 31st minute freshman forward Olivia Brook scored a goal assisted by senior defender, Julia Arnold. By the end of the first half Texas had easily amassed a 4-0 lead, with the final in the first half coming by the foot of freshman midfielder Quinn Zulkowski in the 38th minute.
Incarnate Word couldn’t respond to Texas' Strong start and never found a way into the game. In the second half Brook scored her second un-assisted goal in the 63 minute into the game. Junior forward, Sydney Shutter and sophomore forward, Jasmine Hart scored the final two goals of the game, to complete the 7-0 shut out of Incarnate Word.
“Anytime you can put balls in the back of the net you have to be excited," Angela Kelly said after the win. "I thought we could’ve had a quicker tempo and a better rhythm at times, but we’ve been training them hard.”
“We had 6 a.m. workouts and two-day practices all spring," Kerr said. "It definitely paid off with a 7-0 win tonight, but [there's] lots of work to do.”
Kerr is roommates with Dyche. They both credit each other for keeping focused on and off the field.
According to Kerr, Lilly has already begun proving her skills as a volunteer assistant coach can play a crucial role in the team's success this season.
“On Wednesday we had a technical practice with her," Kerr said. "After every practice she goes and runs fitness and to see that at her age, she could out run all of us.”
As both the start of the soccer the season and the beginning of the academic fall semester sit right around the corner for this Texas team Kelly stresses the importance of academics with her players.
“That’s the reason they’re here," Kelly said. "I’ve been most impressed with the academic prowess. We want to develop young ladies who are leaders of many, not leaders of few.”
Both Kerr and Dyche agreed with Kelly.
“You can’t procrastinate and [you] need to balance both [academics and soccer],” Dyche said (?).
Jasmine Hart, Kerr and Dyche were named to the 2013-2014 Academic All-Big 12 Rookie Team last year. As incoming freshman they had to earn a cumulative GPA of 3.00 (4.0 scale) at least and complete 24 semester hours of non-remedial coursework.
The Women’s soccer team will travel to Honolulu, Hawaii Aug. 22-25 to play Arizona State and Hawaii.
“It’s a privilege to take our squad there," Kelly said. "On a competitive side we're looking to get exposure for our individuals and for our team in different conferences. Arizona State and Hawaii are two teams we could possibly face in the NCAA Tournament. We just want to be as battle tested as we can for the Big 12 Conference.”
