UVU bounces back to win home opener
Christian Ledek | Sports writer | @sea_led
Orem, UT – The Utah Valley University women’s soccer team bounced back from a season opening loss by defeating the University of Central Arkansas 2-0 Sunday afternoon at Clyde Field.
It was the home opener for the Wolverines, and they got off to a good start after losing to San Diego State University on Friday 6-0. The first goal of the match came just eight minutes in when senior midfielder Jamie Brown put one in the back of the net from 19 yards out to make it 1-0. 10 minutes later, junior forward Sheridan Fox scored on a header in front of the net that made it 2-0.
“The game on Friday is not indicative of this team,” Coach Brent Anderson said. “A perfect storm happened and things didn’t go well for us. We were able to see the team rebound today and that was important for us. We saw some good performances from our attacking players as well.”
One of the attacking players was midfielder Libby Weber. Webber had two shots on goal, an assist and was in the mix of the Wolverines attack all day with fluid passing through the midfield.
“We were able to find feet today and Friday we weren’t able to,” Weber said. “It spread out the field for us and gave us a lot of opportunities on goal.”
The 2-0 outcome of the match was not indicative of how dominant UVU was. The Wolverines possessed the ball throughout the entire game and created the most quality chances.
The Bears of Central Arkansas didn’t let up in their attempt to get back in the game. They were given chances to score by careless giveaways by the Wolverines in their own half of the field. The Bears had three shots on goal that all came in the second half.
“We kept giving the ball away in the midfield,” Anderson said. “We gave the ball away close to our goal and allowed them to have scoring opportunities.”
Senior goalkeeper Jessica Duffin was able to thwart those opportunities when they happened as she recorded three saves all in the second half and notched her first shutout of the season.
You can catch the women’s soccer team back in action at Clyde Field on August 28 against Utah State with kickoff slated for 7:30 p.m. MT.
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