The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
UTSA
Soccer defeats UTSA, 2-0, for fourth straight victory
09.02.2011 | Soccer
Sept. 2, 2011
AUSTIN, Texas - The University of Texas Soccer team won its fourth straight match with a 2-0 victory over the Roadrunners from UTSA on Friday night at Mike A. Myers Stadium.
The Longhorns dominated possession in the first half, taking 11 shots, but didn't manage to convert until the second half of play.
In the 75th minute, the Longhorns finally found the back of the net, thanks to Kylie Doniak's perfectly-placed corner kick towards Kristin Cummins, who directed the cross past Dacia Webb, the UTSA keeper who had eight saves on the night.
Just six minutes later UT scored what might have been its most athletic goal of the season to date.
Goalkeeper Alexa Gaul started the counter attack with a long throw out to the speedy Hannah Higgins, who streaked down the sideline beating two defenders and then slotted a well-timed pass through the UTSA defense to Vanessa Ibewuike. Despite a full-field sprint, Ibewuike controlled her body and maneuvered around the final defender before lining up a powerful shot from the top of the box. The goal, Ibewuike's first for the Longhorns, gave UT a 2-0 cushion with nine minutes to play.
The Roadrunners managed seven shots, but UT's poised central defenders, Lucy Keith and Nina Frausing Pedersen, didn't allow many scoring opportunities around the goal.
UT finished with a season-high 25 shots on goal.
The Longhorns continue their season Sunday, Sept. 4 at noon against Dartmouth here at Mike A. Myers Stadium.
Junior F Vanessa Ibewuike
On the set up of her goal: It really goes to show you that we have great players. Most people try to kick it out, but (Alexa Gaul) tried to find a pass that got to Hannah (Higgins), and Hannah worked hard to get it. She beat her player, and she crossed the ball early which allowed me to be alone pretty much in the box. And I would hope that my goal assisted both of them. I hope they both get credited the assist on that one. It was a great job by both of them.
On taking many shots: You could take it two ways. One thing, yes, we do need to finish, but at the same time at least we're getting the chances. There are games where you're not going to get many chances. And in those games, we've got to put away our chances. But the fact that we were constantly knocking at the door, we knew that one was coming. Even going into half time tied 0-0, we should have been up two or three goals, but we knew that we were going to get them eventually because we were pounding on the door. So, it's good and bad, but now we know for future notice.
On the quick turn-around for Sunday's game: Back at it, another day at the office. No big deal.
Head Coach Chris Petrucelli
On substituting Kylie Donaik for the first goal: Yeah, look, we have a number of people who can take corners. None of them were on the field. And certainly Kylie (Donaik) is our first choice, so we were able to get her in the game. And she put a good ball in there, and we scored and then we relaxed after that one. And the second goal was really athletic movement. You know, fast, powerful. Alexa (Gaul) went at the ball in the air, which was great coming off the line. And then Hannah (Higgins) and Vanessa (Ibewuike) ran 120 yards at full speed. And still, (they) were able to play a quality pass and quality finish. So that one was pretty impressive.
On what his team will learn from this game: First, we were patient and that was important. Because in a game like this, if you start to get going a little too fast, you start wasting more chances. Being patient was important. I think when we look at film, we're going to find a couple of things: one, we give the ball away way too much. Like, unforced errors and that sort of thing. I don't know if we were totally tuned in in the first half. We were better in the second half. I have to tell you, they were good. They played quite well. They played good soccer. They didn't come and kick and foul and all that kind of stuff, and they're going to beat some people.
On playing UTSA's style of defence: They did a good job of dropping in and sort of protecting their penalty area. In the first half, we tried to go right down the middle way too much. And even the guys out wide, Hannah (Higgins) and Taylor (Knaack), kept coming inside. We were going inside right to where they were. And so, the thing we talked about at half time, and really what we worked on all week, was trying to get the ball wider, and I thought we were pretty successful with that. That's where the corner came from.
