UCA Women’s soccer (2-3-1) smashed their second win of the season against the Grambling State Tigers (2-5-0) in their return home Friday, Sept. 9.

With a final score of 2-0, the Bears’ offense showed up ready to score. Coach Jeremy Bishop said, “We had a fight tonight about us. We really got after it.”

Bishop said that offensively, the Bears had it in the first half but missed some opportunities towards the end of the match.

“Second half we didn’t create as many good opportunities, but we were pretty good in possession and making them chase the game a lot. So that paid off later in the game.”

The Bears’ first goal was scored by senior midfielder Abby Gibson off a corner kick from sophomore Kelly Van Gundy.

The goal marked Gibson’s first score of the season.

With ten shots in the first half of the game, the Bears were not wasting any scoring opportunities. 

In their last matchup against the University of Tulsa, the team stumbled finding an offensive rotation. Van Gundy previously told The Echo that the offensive lineup this season is newer and “something that we can continue working on.”

10 shots and a goal against Grambling State in period one compared to seven shots and a scoreless first half against Tulsa prove the Bears are finding their offensive footing.

Two substitutions following Gibson’s goal produced multiple shots on goal and fortified a one-score first period for the Bears.

The second half of the match was largely a back-and-forth between the Bears and the Tigers. Grambling State stayed on the defensive, taking only 3 shots the entirety of the second period, compared to the Bears’ seven. 

The Tigers’ goalkeeper, Madison Covey-Taylor, logged 90 minutes in the match. The Bear’s final goal of the night came with less than two minutes left.

Covey-Taylor was unable to save the ball after redshirt freshman Maria Vanegas scored just 27 yards away on a free kick.

The goal marked Vanegas’ first of the season.

“It was a great feeling, I would say like a personal relief,” Vanegas said. “I’ve been practicing free kicks for the last few weeks and I’d say hard work always pays off.”

With only one more non-conference game in the season, the Bears are looking to hone their scoring opportunities. 

“We gotta keep trying to create more scoring chances,” Bishop said. “We’re doing a decent job of that in the last couple of games, but we just gotta keep building on that.”

“Obviously you don’t score every time you get a chance. So more and more chances you get, the better chance you have of getting in there,” Bishop said.

The match marked the team’s highest number of shots at 17 and shots on goal at nine of their 2022 season.

“It was a hard contested match and we’re fortunate to go ahead and get a couple goals,” Bishop said.

Ahead of the match, senior midfielder Sydney Brough said she was looking forward to seeing the team’s progress following their drop against Tulsa. 

“It’s gonna be an interesting game in my opinion because we had almost a week to work and make some adjustments as a team.”

With only one more game left before the Bears head into their conference schedule, a win at home helped morale.

“We’re gonna have to take it game after game and only focus on the moment, but it’s always a pleasure to play in front of our community and friends,” Brough said.

The Bears’ next match will be against Big 12 school Oklahoma State (4-2-1) at home on Sept. 11.