Minneapolis – The Gustavus Adolphus women’s soccer team could not overcome an early 3-0 first half deficit in a 4-0 loss to Augsburg College on Saturday night at Edor Nelson Field. The Gusties were outshot 22-4 in the loss. Gustavus is now 7-8-0 (2-7-0 MIAC), while Augsburg improves to 9-3-4 (5-3-1 MIAC).
Augsburg opened the match with four straight shots before connecting on the fifth. Olivia Muyres put the Auggies on the scoreboard at the 9:04 mark with her 17th goal of the season. Good ball movement led to the goal, which was drilled by Muyres from six yards out.
It was Muyres again at 25:04 to extend the Augsburg lead to 2-0 in the early going. Muyres spun and fired a shot after taking a pass from Molly Allen, who was credited with an assist on the play.
Less than a minute later, the Auggies extended their lead with a goal from Marie Fitzgerald. Muyres moved from scorer to passer on the play, as she was given an assist. For Fitzgerald, it was her seventh goal of the season that put Augsburg on top 3-0 heading into halftime.
The Auggies held a shot advantage of 14-1 in the opening frame. Goalkeeper Roisen Granlund (Fy., St. Paul, Minn.) made seven saves in the half.
Although Gustavus showed much improvement in the second half, the Gustie women found it difficult to come back from the three-goal deficit in the final frame. The Gusties created multiple dangerous opportunities in the final 45 minutes, but it was Carter Denison who put the finishing touches on the win for Augsburg with the final goal of the match at the 53:41 mark. Denison took a cross from Marta Anderson and put it away to extend the lead to four goals, which is where it would stay for the remainder of the night.
For the game, Augsburg enjoyed a shot advantage of 22-4, while also holding the advantage in the corner. The Auggies won the corner kick battle 4-0.
Gustavus keeper Roisen Granlund allowed four goals and made 10 saves in the losing effort. She falls to 2-2-0 on the season. Augsburg keeper Katie Gajewski was credited with the win to improve to 9-3-4. However, she shared the shutout with Lucy Bukowski, who came played the entire second half.
“Augsburg is a very talented team,” mentioned Head Coach Laura Burnett-Kurie. “We battled with them physically and put up a good fight. It took us a half to really get settled down, but when we did, we created some dangerous opportunities.”
Gustavus will be back in action on Wednesday, Oct. 13th when it hosts Bethel at the Gustie Soccer Field. Wednesday will serve as Senior Day, where six seniors on this year’s squad will be recognized for their commitment to the Gustavus women’s soccer program. Wednesday’s kick off is set for 3:30 p.m.
“This year one of our main goals is playing with pride,” finished Burnett-Kurie. “The idea that no matter what the score is or what our record is, we are going to battle, fight, and leave it all on the field. we did that tonight, and will do that against Bethel again on Wednesday in our last home match of the year.”