Women's Soccer Claimed Victory over Evansville in Final Home Regular Season Matchup

NASHVILLE, Tenn.-- Belmont University Women's Soccer defeated the University of Evansville 2-1 in an exciting regular season home finale Sunday, October 16. The Bruins will compete next week on the road against Drake and Northern Iowa to complete regular season play. 

Belmont honored their three seniors Taylor Dorenkott, Mai Thy Nguyen, and Emily Abdoney for all of their hard work over their careers and for the lasting legacy they will leave on the Women's Soccer program. 

"Today was a day to honor them with our heart, battle, and desire to play. They have laid a fantastic foundation for our team through the tears, sweat, and early morning training to make sure each year we get stronger and stronger. It was our opportunity to celebrate everyone but really focus on those three to get us started." Head Coach Henson on her graduating class. 

Belmont now 5-4-5 and 3-3-2 earned their first three points in conference at home to finalize their home matches. The Bruins battled evenly in the first half yet still out shot the Aces 4-3. 

The momentum on the pitch changed as they moved into the second half. Leah Firsdon had the match of her career scoring both goals for the Bruins, her first ever double scoring match. 

"We found our composure in the second half. They did a great job opening up and creating a lot of great runs." 

Firsdon drew a foul just outside of the corner of the box to create a set piece for the Bruins. The ball was sent into the box and was bobbled amongst both teams. In the air the Ace's goalkeeper intended to punch out the ball away from the goal. Firsdon in the perfect position got a head on it to go up 1-0 over the Aces in the 54th minute. 

"She's been chipping away at it, her game has really improved over the past two weeks, we saw it coming, I am so happy everyone else got to as well." Coach Henson on Firsdon's performance. 

Just 11 minutes later in another attempt for the Aces to clear the ball out of the box, Firsdon settled the ball right inside the 18 for a beautiful shot. A powerful and intentional shot put the Bruins up 2-0. 

The Aces drew a penalty kick inside the box in the 67th minute to score their sole goal of the match. 

Doyle did not let the penalty kick stop her from having another impressive match. With only 11 minutes left on the clock Doyle laid out for a fantastic save to keep the Aces from tying. 

Belmont posted an impressive 12 shots on the day with four corner kicks and three saves. 

"We're always fighting for points, the conference is stacked. We are getting ready to go on the road for a trip we've never taken. Today was a reminder that we are good at home, we're good on the road, now we're just taking the show on the road. We're going to go for three in each match." Coach Henson on their final two regular season matches in Iowa.

Up Next: The Bruins will hit the road for the final time in the regular season to take on Drake Thursday, October 20 and Northern Iowa on Sunday, October 23.