WKU Soccer wraps up 2022 fall season on Senior Night
WKU #11 Ellie Belcher and #20 Ansley Cate go head-to-head with University of Texas at El Paso goalkeeper #30 Mariah Scott in an attack on goal on Sept. 22, 2022. WKU upset the Miners 1-0.
October 28, 2022
WKU soccer (7-8-3, 4-5-1 C-USA) defeated the Charlotte 49ers (3-10-1, 2-6-2 C-USA) 1-0 in a thriller on WKU’s Senior Night, Friday at the WKU Soccer Complex. After the match, the Hilltoppers honored their nine seniors in the last home game of their collegiate careers.
“I can’t say enough about this senior class, said head coach Jason Niedell.” “They’ve been incredible on the field. They’ve been even more awesome off the field and they’ve just been a joy to be around a joy to coach them.”
Fifth year senior Lyric Schmidt had an amazing performance for the HIlltoppers. Her goal in the 85th minute led WKU to a win in their last game of the regular season.
The first half was dominated by both defenses. The Hilltopper and 49er offense were held to three shots each through the first 45. Both squads were also very physical in the first half, tallying nine fouls between the two teams. WKU senior Sydney Ernst was given a yellow card in the 23rd minute to add to the physicality of the match.
“I thought we came out really strong in the first 20 minutes. The second part of the first half I don’t think we’re very happy with just not being very clean technically and we had to defend a lot.” said Niedell.
The second half started off with the same defensive intensity from the first. Both teams only had one shot combined through the first 15 minutes. However, the Hilltopper offense began to put pressure on the Charlotte defensive unit late in the game. WKU was able to collect six shots and six corner kicks in the half. In the 85th minute, the Hilltoppers were finally able to capitalize on the momentum when fifth year senior Lyric Schmidt had a beautiful strike outside of the box that got past the keeper and hit the net.
“I thought we came out in the second half with some urgency and looked like we were aggressive in the attack and looked like we wanted to score and made some good things happen,” said Niedell.
The Hilltoppers were able to hold out for the final five minutes, and won the game 1-0. The win ended a three game losing streak and was a nice finish to the regular season.
WKU Soccer wraps up their regular season and will move on to the C-USA tournament next week in Charlotte, North Carolina.
