Storm Lake, Iowa – Under the lights of J. Leslie Rollins Stadium, the Gustavus Adolphus women’s soccer team shined in a 4-0 win over Buena Vista University on Wednesday night. The Gusties scored twice in each half on the way to the four-goal victory. Gustavus improves to 7-7-0 overall, while Buena Vista drops to 2-14-1.
Gustavus put the pressure on Buena Vista in the opening minutes. Just 3:21 into the match, the Gusties were awarded with a corner kick. After being sent into the box and deflected around, the ball found its way across the goal line for an own goal on Buena Vista that put Gustavus on top 1-0 in the early going.
The Gusties continued to pepper Beaver goalkeeper Tricia Schwartz throughout the remainder of the half. Gustavus enjoyed a 15-2 shot advantage in the opening 45 minutes, which was capped off by a Coursey Edwards (Fy., Eden Prairie, Minn.) goal at the 39:57 mark. Edwards’s third goal of the season came off of a rebound and extended the Gustie lead to two goals heading into halftime.
“We got on the board early, which was nice,” mentioned Head Coach Laura Burnett-Kurie. “In the first half, we hit a couple of crossbars, we hit a post, and their goalkeeper made a few big saves, so it was great for us to get on the board early.”
Gustavus remained the aggressor after the break, drawing three consecutive fouls on the Beavers to open the second half. Those three fouls gave way to a Maddison Ackiss (Fy., Fairbanks, Alaska) goal at 52:23. Ackiss was assisted by Edwards on the goal.
From there, the Gustavus defense tightened, as the Beavers could not get anything going offensively. The Gusties did not allow a single shot in the second half to secure a shot advantage of 22-2 for the match.
“They did a nice job with their counter attack,” said Burnett-Kurie. “But our back line did an awesome job of slowing them down so they couldn’t get behind us.”
The Gusties went on to score in the final minute of the game when Amanda Cartony (Sr., Stillwater, Minn.) buried her sixth goal of the season to put the finishing touches on the 4-0 win. Ackiss assisted on the goal.
Goalkeepers Roisen Granlund (Fy., St. Paul, Minn.) and Caroline Olson (Jr., York, Pa.) combined for Gustavus’s third shutout of the season. Granlund was the goalkeeper of record. She moves to 2-1-0 on the year. Tricia Schwartz received the loss for the Beavers.
“Buena Vista played with a very high back line, which we haven’t seen much this year,” analyzed Burnett-Kurie. “We did a good job of getting in behind them and played very unselfish tonight. It was fun to see us move the ball like we did. When we play our tempo, we are able to create dangerous opportunities offensively. We were able to do that consistently tonight, which will be a key going into Saturday against Augsburg.”
Gustavus will be in action again on Saturday night when it takes to the road for an MIAC match up with Augsburg at 7:00 p.m. in Minneapolis.