Women’s soccer wins big

By Sam Fran Scavuzzo
Collegian Editor
October 11, 2006

A large crowd at McCarthy Stadium walked away satisfied and entertained this weekend following an Explorer athletic contest. No, this wasn't Saturday following the La Salle football contest - a 41-13 loss to Marist. Instead, it was the women's soccer team that caused Family Weekend to end with a bang, as it thoroughly dismantled the Richmond Spiders on Sunday, defeating them 3-0.

Junior Kristin Hextall led the way with a goal - her third in three games - and two assists. Her red hot performance in the past week - 10 points in three games - allowed her to capture the Atlantic 10 Player of the Week honors as well as the Collegian's Female Athlete of the Week award. This is not her first nod from the A-10 as she won Rookie of the Week honors as freshman, according to the athletic department.

The victory capped off an impressive week for the club as they defeated Charlotte on Friday night, 2-1. La Salle women's soccer now has a three game winning streak. More importantly, the victories have come against Atlantic 10 opponents.

With the wins, La Salle is tied for second in the A-10 with Charlotte and the University of Rhode Island, at 3-1. Dayton University, who the Explorers will visit on Oct. 22, is ahead of them both with a 3-0 record. Overall La Salle has a record of 6-7.

The game started with a bang as Hextall scored for the Explorers 1:25 in the match. After a midfield pass from freshman Melanie Gamble, Hextall was all alone with Richmond's freshman keeper Erin Iman, drilling a shot past her left side.

Hextall's goal was all the Explorers needed as sophomore goalkeeper Amy Grant turned away three Spider shots on her way to her second shut out of the season.

However, much credit goes to the La Salle defense as well as the offense in keeping Richmond scoreless. A good deal of time was spent in the Spider end and not many real scoring chances were had by the Spiders.

La Salle was able to consistently pepper Iman and second half Spider goalie Kate Hudson with 14 shots - to continue their A-10 lead in the stat - and adding two more goals before the day was over.

To close the first half junior Kim Lisun added a goal, off a Hextall assist, expanding the Explorer to 2-0 at halftime.

After a bullet shot by Hextall off the crossbar, senior Ashley Cassel controlled the rebound to score her second goal of the season. Lisun also assisted in the goal 25 minutes into the second half, reaching the final score of 3-0.

Sunday's win came despite the team being down a player for most of the game. Senior Heather Barclay received a red card from the referee 8:38 into the first half and was ejected from the game. Barclay will not be able to play in the Explorer's next contest against St. Bonaventure at home Friday.

Head coach Paul Royal will have to decide who will replace Barclay in the starting line-up for the next match. Lately, sophomore Dana Giordano as been a spark off the Explorer bench - scoring two goals against the Univeristy of Massachusetts on Oct. 1 - and played a good deal of Sunday's game in Barclay's absence.

Additionally, junior defender Shelby Reese was injured early in the contest and did not return to play. Freshman Carissa Philips replaced her in the contest and started the second half. Reese's status for Friday's game is not known.

St. Bonaventure comes to town with a record of 1-10-1, tied for last in the Atlantic 10 with Temple and Xavier at 0-3. Look for the club to come out firing on all cylinders on Friday as they did against Richmond.

scavuzzos1@lasalle.edu