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Women’s soccer scores a pair of wins during parents’ weekend

Pioneers have a tremendous weekend, defeating Monmouth 3-1 and shutting down Illinois College in an 11-0 blowout

by Adam Lorton

During parent’s weekend on Sept. 17 and Sept. 18, Grinnell women’s soccer secured two decisive victories at home.

David Kennedy / The Scarlet & Black (web.grinnell.edu/sandb) Women's soccer

The Pioneer women went into the weekend with a 1-2-1 record, looking for a pair of wins to improve their season.

The women handily defeated their first opponents, the Monmouth Fighting Scots, with a final score of 3-1.

The Pioneers controlled the ball very well during the beginning of the game and Katherine Ni ’09 scored the first goal on an assist from Molly Kratz ’08.

The Scots answered quickly, scoring their only goal just minutes later. After that, the Pioneers surged forward again, with Ni scoring her second goal of the match, on an assist from Emily Scholten ’06.

The Pioneers led 2-1 at halfway through the game. Neither team scored again until the game was nearly over. With 12 minutes remaining, Rebecca Mackenzie ’09 scored the final goal of the game.

Overall, the women’s soccer team was pleased with the performance. “We spread the offense around pretty well,” said Liz Carrier ’07. “There wasn’t one single player we relied on all [game].”

The offense was also in great shape on Saturday; the Pioneers more than tripled Monmouth’s shot count, ending the game with 22 shots to the Scots’ 7.

In the Sunday game against the Illinois College Lady Blues, Grinnell women’s soccer opened the floodgates, with two players scoring three goals and five other players scoring one goal each in an 11-0 trouncing.

Grinnell came out strong in the first half. Kratz scored first, followed by two back-to-back goals from Julia Bradley-Cook ’06. Ni scored her third goal of the weekend soon afterward, making the halftime score 4-0.

After the half, Grinnell didn’t waste any time adding to their lead. Julie Ault ’08 and Kara Moskowitz ’06 scored in the first six minutes of play.

Ni added points to the board with her second goal of the game, making the score 7-0. Bradley-Cook continued the onslaught by finishing off her hat trick with a header assisted by Sofia Skraba ’08.

The Pioneers kept their offense working until the very end of the game. In the last twelve minutes of play, the women’s soccer team scored three more goals: one by Rachel Moskowitz ’06, one by Amanda Lewis ’08 and a final goal by Ni, her third goal of the game and her fifth goal of the weekend.

It was a stunning all-around performance by the team. Grinnell outshot Illinois College 70-1, indicating an outstanding performance by the Pioneer defense as well as the offense.

After her outstanding performance, with five goals in only two games, Ni was named Midwest Conference offensive player of the week.

“There were two best parts to this weekend,” said Ni. “The first, obviously, was that I scored. As a forward, finishing is your main objective. Second of all, it was parents’ weekend for the soccer team, so the ability to score goals, knowing that my parents were there to see them, was also very exciting.”

“More than just getting wins and needing wins, I was really pleased with the way we played our game and didn’t let up out there,” said Carrier. “We didn’t play down to anybody.”

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