Maddison Ackiss completed a hat-trick to help secure the Gustie’s first victory of the season.
St. Bonifacius, Minn. – After spending its first six matches searching for a victory, the Gustavus Adolphus women’s soccer team found it in a big way in its seventh match. The Gusties defeated Crown College 6-0 in a non-conference matchup on Tuesday evening at KleinBank Stadium to bump their record to 1-4-2 (0-2-0 MIAC) on the season and give themselves a shot of confidence heading into their third MIAC match on Saturday against the College of Saint Benedict.
“This was an exciting game that featured a lot of attacking opportunities and high pressure up top,” said head coach Laura Burnett-Kurie. “It’s great to get the first win of the year. We broke the ice and hopefully they will keep coming.”
The Gusties were on the board less than ten minutes into the game when first-year midfielder Molly Johnston (Mendota Heights, Minn.) finished off a deflection off of Storm goalkeeper Hillary Brondsema at the 7:40 mark. The goal was the first of the season scored by a Gustie not named Maddison Ackiss and also came with the Gustie’s first assist on the season, which went to Ackiss.
No more scoring occurred until late in the first half when Ackiss found the net for what would be her first of three goals on the evening off an assist from first-year forward Hannah Sturtz (Plymouth, Minn.). A minute into the second half, Gustavus earned its third goal of the evening when a Crown blunder resulted in an own-goal. Ten minutes later, Ackiss found the net for a second time off a 25 yard free kick and six minutes after that, Sophie Leininger (Fy., Plymouth, Minn.) made it a 5-0 Gustie lead by taking advantage of a penalty kick. Ackiss then put the icing on the cake when she completed a hat-trick at the 69:48 mark for her team-leading sixth goal of the season.
The Gusties shattered their season high of 13 shots by shooting a whopping 38 on Tuesday compared to Crown’s four. “We had a lot of good movement off the ball,” said Burnett-Kurie. “It was great to see, for the second game in a row, the depth of our bench and it was also cool to see a couple of our first-years get their first collegiate goals.”
Caroline Olson (Sr., York, Penn.) enjoyed a quiet night between the posts by making one save in all ninety minutes to pick up her first victory of the season.
The Gusties will now look for their first MIAC win this Saturday when they take on Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, Minnesota. That match is slated for a 1 p.m. start time.
Where to go Maddison!!!!!