The UCA Women’s soccer team overthrew Queens University of Charlotte during its Atlantic Sun Conference opening game at the Bill Stephens Soccer and Track Complex.
The Queens (5-5, ASUN 1-1) quickly scored two goals by graduate student midfielder Sophia Muetterties and freshman forward Mia Banchero in the 13th and 15th minute.
UCA coach Jeremy Bishop said, “I didn’t feel like we started that slow, but they got a couple of goals, so put us in a hole, and so we had to battle and got it back before half, which was huge.”
In the 26th minute, senior midfielder Kelly Van Gundy scored UCA’s (3-5, ASUN 2-0) first goal of the game.
The Bears and the Queens were tied at the 44th minute when sophomore forward Caroline Billings earned a second goal for the Bears.
Bishop said at halftime, the team reiterated the game plan to win.
“We talked about continuing to put them under pressure so that they have to play their game, is to try to play side to side,” he said. “We took them out of that, made them have to be more direct. We were able to win all those balls and gather them and go back at them, and we just kept going at them over and over and over.”
The Queens did not score in the second half of the game, and the score stayed 2-2 until the 89th minute when freshman forward Sophia Backstrom gained a last-second goal with an assist from senior forward Anna Kerr.
Van Gundy said the team aims to “just don’t turn off.”
“We kind of sometimes slack on our set plays, but just to pay attention on those and don’t get down whatever comes at us,” she said.
Bishop said, “We came out flying in the second half and created a lot of chances to score and get ahead, and never did until the very end. So it was a great effort all the way across the board.”
Van Gundy said she was “really excited” to win the team’s first conference game.
“We had a really tough preseason, but something about our team that we’ve learned. We just got grit and we’re connected just on and off the field, and that helps us just pull through with games like these.”
Van Gundy said she was proud of all her teammates.
“Our bench is always so supportive,” she said. “Nina [Mazzola], she covers everywhere, all over the field and then Sophia [Backstrom], she’s a freshman and kills it every game. She got that winning goal, so that’s awesome.”
Bishop said since the team had a rough preseason, they made some changes to positions on the team.
“We had been playing a different formation, and we changed that to give ourselves, hopefully, a little bit more attack, and that’s been working,” he said. “We’ve just tweaked a little bit of personnel, Kelly [Van Gundy] moving up to the front line, instead of in midfield, Anna [Kerr] to the outside, instead of in the middle, up front.”
The theme of the Sept. 19 game was MVP, most valuable professor, where players walked their professors down the field before the game began.