University of North Florida
Lipscomb
Two Early Goals Propel Women’s Soccer over Lipscomb, 2-1
10/8/2010 10:52:07 PM | Women's Soccer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – With two early goals from freshmen forward Carolina Lencina and Lauren Hopfensperger, North Florida women's soccer team notched its third consecutive Atlantic Sun Conference victory, defeating Lipscomb 2-1 at the Lipscomb Soccer Complex Friday night.
“We've said all along we wanted to be ready for conference play and that's why we scheduled out of conference the way we did,” head coach Linda Hamilton said. “We feel fortunate to come away with a win on the road. I thought Lipscomb was very disruptive to us, and I thought they hustled and played hard and really did cause us some problems.”
After the day, the Ospreys improve to 6-8 overall and 5-2 in conference play while the Lady Bison fall to 4-10 on the season and 0-6 in league action. North Florida is now just one win away from putting together its best A-Sun Conference start in school history – the squad started-5-2 in 2005, its first year in the conference.
Lencina opened the scoring in the sixth minute off a well-placed corner kick from freshman midfielder Keara Murphy. It was Lencina's fifth goal on the year and Murpy's fourth helper on the season.
Putting the Ospreys up 2-0 in the first 11 minutes of the match, Hopfensperger found the back of the net for a conference-leading eighth time this season. Hopfensperger's fourth game-winning goal of the year was also provided off a corner from Murphy, who tallied her fifth assist this season. Hopfensperger has also scored at least one goal in each of the last three matches.
“These girls are on a mission and want to make the tournament,” Hamilton said. “They knew today was very important to achieve that goal. Carolina and Lauren are battling it out to be the leader and they're both very, very good players. They're playing great soccer. Whenever you have one goal scorer, it's a nice luxury, but to have two is just impressive. I think they're just doing a great job.”
The lead was cut to one when Lipscomb junior midfielder Danielle Bethke beat her defender on a one-on-one and scored her first goal of the season.
North Florida's defense continued to impress, allowing just one goal in the last three matches. Sophomore goalkeeper Brittany Hahn picked up her sixth win this season, and grabbed three saves on the day to move into 10th all-time in North Florida school history for saves in a season (40).
Over the last 11 matches, North Florida has at least equaled its opponents in shots taken and outshot opponents in nine of those 11. The Ospreys edged the Bison in the category today, 12-11, and allowed just four in the second half.
North Florida will continue its stay in Nashville, closing out weekend play at Belmont on Sunday, Oct. 10 with kickoff scheduled for 1 p.m. (ET).
