On Sunday, the Florida Atlantic Owls women’s soccer team (0-1-2) won their first game against Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Islanders (1-2), 3-0.
Recovering from their first loss of the 2023 season to Oklahoma State University on Thursday, leading scorer sophomore forward Elin Simonardottir and the Owls look to get some good luck as they play on their home turf for the first time this season.
The Owls started the game being aggressive offensively, getting to the Islanders net early. Unfortunately, they were not able to get any shots into the net.
At the 14-minute mark, FAU sophomore midfielder Morgan McDonald assisted junior forward Sloane Young and scored the game’s first goal by either team.
The Owls kept showing aggressive behavior toward the Islanders’ net. Though the Islanders had instances where they went to the Owls net, they did not execute to score.
At the 39-minute mark, the Owls scored again when junior forward Drew Dempsey scored a free kick assisted by sophomore defender Kayla Siddiqi. The game went into halftime shortly after, with the Owls up 2-0.
Returning from halftime, the beginning of the second half was similar to the start of the first half. The Owls stayed aggressive on offense and were primarily on the Islanders’ net. Simonardottir scored the Owls’ third goal of the game, and her third goal of the season, at the 54-minute mark with an assist from senior midfielder Molly Sestma and freshman forward Olivia Bori.
Throughout the second half, the Owls have been holding possession of the ball more while protecting their net on defense. However, at one point, Islanders junior forward Storm Harris had an opening to score the first goal for the Islanders, but it didn’t work in her favor, as the ball went out of bounds. The Owls kept the Islanders away from the net at the end of the game, securing the FAU women’s soccer team their first win of the season and at home.
“If someone had said that you were going to get your first win in the fourth game, I’m not so sure I would’ve believed them,” head coach Patrick Baker stated what it felt like to get their first win of the season. “Because I thought we played well, I thought we played well against University of Arkansas-Little Rock, I thought we were exceptional at the University of Miami (not to get the result), deserved the loss at Oklahoma State. So, it was nice to finally, you know, get that positive result. It’s going to be a nice feeling for the girls, waking up tomorrow and kind of starting the week knowing we’ve got our first win.”
The Owls will face the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (3-0-1) in their second straight home game on August 31 at 7 p.m. at the FAU Soccer Stadium.
Maddox Greenberg is the Sports Editor for the University Press. Email [email protected] or DM via Twitter @MaddoxGreenberg and Instagram @maddoxblade04 for information regarding this or other stories.
