The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Dartmouth
Soccer wins fifth straight, tops Dartmouth, 2-0
09.04.2011 | Soccer
Sept. 4, 2011
AUSTIN, Texas -- The University of Texas Soccer team defeated Dartmouth, 2-0, on Sunday afternoon at Mike A. Myers Stadium for the Longhorns' fifth straight victory of the season.
Goalie Alexa Gaul finished with three saves and shut down the Big Green for the Longhorns' fourth shutout of the season -- and the 16th of Gaul's career. This marks the second time in program history the Longhorns have logged four shutouts in the first six matches.
The Longhorns secured their first goal of the match with 1:44 remaining in the first half. Nina Frausing Pedersen set up Vanessa Ibewuike's second goal in as many matches with a on-target pass which Ibewuike redirected into the goal.
Ibewuike was also involved in UT's second goal of the match, this time assisting Hannah Higgin's first goal of the season to give the Longhorns a 2-0 cushion with 6:39 remaining.
With the win, Texas improved to 5-1-0 while Dartmouth fell to 0-2-0. The Longhorns strung together five consecutive wins for the first time since the beginning of the 2008 season.
UT returns to action on Friday, Sept. 9, when the Longhorns take on the San Diego Toreros at the Trojan Invitational in Los Angeles, Calif.
Junior GK Alexa Gaul
On her play and preparation for today: I mean, [assistant] coach Kat Mertz told me to stay focused. Anything can happen. This whole weekend, I've just been working on staying focused and doing the little things.
On initiating the offense: We've been talking about looking quick, especially with the wind today. In the first half, it helped too that we have Vanessa [Ibewuike] and Stacey [-Ann Smith] who can run fast and catch up to those balls. So, just look fast. And one of our mottos this year is play fast and get the ball. So that's what we're trying to do.
Head coach Chris Petrucelli
On competing with Dartmouth's style of play: Yeah, you know, it's the Sundays [that] are usually hard. And they made it hard for us. They were really organized. And they prevented us from playing short balls into the middle, which we like to do. And then we had to play longer balls. The first goal came on the longer ball. So it was a good experience for us because they presented different problems that we haven't seen yet.
On Alexa Gaul's play today: Yeah, She's really good with her feet. And she's good at reading, sort of, when to throw it out, when to hold it, when to play quick. And she's obviously very good at stopping shots. You can see she looks very comfortable.
