University of Houston
Marshall
Soccer Drops Marshall, 2-1, For Fourth-Straight Win
9/30/2005 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
Sept. 30, 2005
UH-Marshall Box Score
Download Free Acrobat Reader
HOUSTON, Texas - The University of Houston soccer team stormed past Marshall, 2-1, in the Conference USA opener for both squads, Friday in Robertson Stadium. The Cougars (6-2-1, 1-0-0 C-USA) have won four consecutive matches while Marshall (1-8-0, 0-1-0 C-USA) has lost four-straight.
UH, playing its first match in 10 days, exceeded its 2004 win total of five matches. The 6-2-1 mark is the best start to a season in program history.
"We don't look past any game or any opponent," head coach Bill Solberg said following the win. "We need to continue to create a home field presence and continue to get good results."
Junior transfer Sophia Mundy (Katy, Texas/St. Pius HS/Portland State) got UH on the board in the 40th minute after she buried a shot at point-blank range past Marshall `keeper Kai Nordess following a through ball from freshman Brittney Pfeiffer (Sugar Land, Texas/St. Agnes Academy).
"I saw Brittney (Pfeiffer) streaking down the sideline and I knew I had to get to the far post," Mundy said. "I was hoping she was going to cross that ball back through the middle and she did. It was an easy goal for me and she put in a great effort. She is a lot quicker than most people think and she really gets the job done."
Mundy added UH's second tally with a ball that bounced off Nordess in the 53rd minute. She moved into a tie for the league lead with 10 goals on the season. That goal total is already the third-best single-season effort in UH history.
Marshall's Courtney Hoover tallied her first career goal at the 71:46 mark. Hoover snuck the ball past UH freshman goalkeeper Lynn Baker (Orland Park, Ill./Carl Sandburg HS) after the Herd's Ali Lizotte dropped the ball in behind the UH defense.
Baker grabbed two saves in 73 minutes of action moving her record to 5-0-1 on the season. Senior Stephanie Pucek (Alvin, Texas/Alvin HS) relieved her with 18 minutes left. Pucek had no saves and did not face a shot.
UH controlled the pace in the first half with most of the action taking place in the attacking third of the field. The Cougars fired 11 shots in the opening stanza with four of those on goal.
For the match, UH had 15 shots, compared to six for the Herd. Nordess tallied four saves in the first half and five for the game. Her record on the year drops to 1-7-0.
"The girls responded tremendously to everything we put in at practice this week," Solberg said. "We concentrated on a lot of fitness because of the layoff and I know it was not fun for them. They put in the effort because they knew the work would pay off in the long run."
The Cougars close out a season-long nine-match homestand Sunday against East Carolina. The C-USA match gets underway at 1 p.m. CST in Robertson Stadium.
