Lady Tops roll in two at home

Danny Schoenbaechler

It looked like a baseball game on the scoreboard. Or maybe even a low-scoring, field goal-heavy football game. It was neither.

After an early 2-1 deficit, Western’s women’s soccer team stormed back with a second-half explosion to beat Morehead State 9-3 on Sunday.

The Lady Toppers were trailing until sophomore Allison Nellis slid a shot into the net to tie it at 2-2 just two minutes before the break.

Then Western opened the second half by scoring three goals in the first eleven minutes, on their way to seven second-half goals.

“We scored pretty early in the game,” Western coach Jason Neidell said. “Sometimes when you score an early goal you think it’s going to be an easy game. But we got organized and got things back together.”

After the 2-1 deficit, Western scored six consecutive goals to put away the Eagles. Nellis’ game-tying goal was one of three on the day as she rolled up a hat trick. But she wasn’t alone.

Every Lady Topper saw action in the second half, but the relentless attack never let down, as Western scored its final two goals in the last two minutes of regulation. Besides Nellis’ three goals, six other Lady Toppers scored the remaining goals.

Western improved to 3-1 with the win, after beating Austin Peay – in its first year of women’s soccer – 1-0 on Friday.

“I thought we played fantastic in the second half,” Neidell said. “This weekend we’ve looked very good.”

Nellis was pleased with how her team rebounded after the disappointing first half Sunday.

“We felt down and we didn’t finish offensively in the first half,” she said. “We knew that we just needed to go out there and step it up.”

The Lady Toppers are only in their second season of existence and are still dealing with how young their squad is.

Western only has one senior and one junior on its roster.

“This team has great potential,” Neidell said. “I thought it would be easier this year. But we have expectations on ourselves now.”

Nellis thought that Western showed some of that potential against Morehead.

“I think (Sunday) shows a lot of good things,” she said. “I think it showed we will get a lot better.”

Western will visit Stillwater, Okla. Thursday night to take on Oklahoma State.

Reach Danny Schoenbaechler at [email protected]