The Southwestern University women's soccer team put on a scoring clinic against the University of St. Thomas Celts last Friday night. The team's 5-1 win over the Celts was highlighted by Laren Gradt, who scored three goals and one assist, accounting for four of the Pirate's five goals on the night.
Samantha Hazen opened up the scoring for the Pirates in just the fifth minute of the game on an assist from Gradt. Both sophomore forwards had multi-goal games, Hazen scored again in the 55' minute with the assist coming from Breana Trevino.
Immediately following Hazen's second goal, Grad scored her first goal of the game which ignited two more goals from her in a ten-minute time span. Junior defender Kate Nguyen was credited with the helper on Gradt's second goal of the game, totaling three assists from the Pirates' squad.
The Celts could only manage one goal in the final minutes of the game thanks to a great defensive effort from goalkeeper Johnna Campbell, who had seven saves to give the Pirates a comfortable 5-1 victory.
The Pirates then made the long bus trip to Shreveport, Louisiana, to face the Centenary College Ladies.
An own goal by Centenary would prove to be all the Southwestern University women's soccer team needed in defeating the Ladies 2-0 on Sunday afternoon.
Southwestern remained in second place in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference with a 4-2-4 overall record and 4-0-1 in conference play.
The match was scoreless throughout the entire first half and then for the first 16-plus minutes of the second half before Centenary (0-11-1, 0-6 SCAC) made a vital miscue, an own goal from the Ladies put Southwestern on top 1-0.
Yamila Lara gave the Pirates an insurance goal in the 85th minute off an assist from Samantha Hazen. The goal for Lara was her third of the season despite just four shots on goal.
Southwestern controlled the pace of the match throughout and tallied more shots (21-7) and corner kicks (10-2) than Centenary could muster.
Johnna Campbell earned the win and the shutout in goal for Southwestern while stopping three shots.
Hazen and Laren Gradt led the way for the Pirates in shot attempts with five each.
UP NEXT
Southwestern will go to battle with Trinity University on Friday at Varsity Field in a showdown for first place in the SCAC standings. The Tigers are currently 9-0-1 overall and 5-0-0 in the SCAC. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:00 p.m.
Photo by Carlos Barron