Photo by: Justin Edmonds
The Pioneer women’s soccer team opened Sun Belt Conference play on Friday evening with a 0-0 tie to Louisiana-Lafayette, but ended the weekend with a 1-0 victory over Louisiana-Monroe on Sunday afternoon.
DU women’s soccer (4-2-3, 1-0-1 SBC) has only tied the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns one other time, which was during 2005 on the road. Their all-time record against the Ragin’ Cajuns is 8-0-2.
“It’s disappointing not to get the win today after last weekend,” said Head Coach Jeff Hooker, referring to the Pioneer victory over No. 1-ranked Stanford. “We got plenty of shots off but one mistake and anything can happen.”
The Pioneers controlled Friday’s game by outshooting the Ragin’ Cajuns 25-5 overall and outshooting them 7-0 during overtime play. It was an aggressive game with a lot of close calls. A player for the Ragin’ Cajuns received a yellow card and the opposing team had 13 fouls, while DU had four.
In the second overtime the Pioneers had the opportunity to score a golden goal and win the game when an illegal passback from the Ragin’ Cajun’s goalie to another player forced an indirect kick for the Pioneers. However, the indirect kick was blocked by the Ragin’ Cajun players.
“We’ve been playing a higher level and pace in the beginning of the season and need to keep going,” said Hooker of his team’s tie against Louisiana-Lafayette. “We are going to change the line-up a little bit for Sunday’s game.”
Sunday, against the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks, senior midfielder Jenna Billingsley (Littleton, Colo.) scored her sixth goal of the season after junior forward Dana Schonberger (Littleton, Colo.) booted a pass from the left corner and Billingsley headed the ball past the goalie. Sophomore goalkeeper Macenzie Snyder (Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.) shut out her third straight opponent and had six saves against ULM.
In 2006, the Pioneer women’s soccer team swept the Sun Belt Conference tournament in three games. Denver didn’t give up a single goal during the tournament and made it two games into the NCAA tournament before being knocked out by Colorado. DU swept the SBC portion of its schedule in 2006, with a record of 11-0-0.
The Pioneers travel next to South Florida to play Florida Atlantic on Friday at 5 p.m. and Florida International on Sunday at 9 a.m.
