The UCA women’s soccer team (1-1-1) scored their first goals and win of the season against the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (0-2) in the Governor’s I-40 Showdown last Thursday. The Bears beat the Trojans 3-1 at home, breaking their scoring drought in the third game of the season.
They broke the drought 24 minutes into the game when sophomore forward Anna Kerr crossed the ball to senior forward Taylor Lassiter, who scored the first of the game.
The Bears played a tight defense the whole game, saving four of the five shots on goal taken by UALR.
Junior goalkeeper Kayla Perez was pivotal in keeping the Trojans from scoring in the first half.
“It was nice to be on our home field and finally get a solid start,” Perez said.
The Bears found a groove toward the end of the first half, taking possession of the ball right up until the Trojans showed some life by making a run at the goal right before halftime.
The tide swapped when UALR scored their first goal in the 66th minute, making the score 1-1 with a little over 20 minutes left in the game. Redshirt junior Mari Young from UALR tied the game.
Both teams played aggressively, especially after the game was tied up. UALR had a total of 14 fouls — seven in the second half — and UCA a total of five — three in the second half.
It was anyone’s game until freshman forward Tristyn Pavatt scored with an assist from senior midfielder Abby Gibson with 19 minutes left, making the game 2-1.
“[The goal] felt really good. As a freshman, it felt really good to accomplish something I’ve been working toward,” Pavatt said.
UCA put the game away when sophomore midfielder Kelly VanGundy sunk a long shot into the back of the net with nearly 10 minutes left, making the score 3-1.
The first win of the season is also marked as coach Jeremy Bishop’s 100th win with the Bears, and he was drenched with a cooler of ice water by his team after the victory.
“It’s great the amount of work we’ve been putting in to get the first win for the season and to get off on a good start finally. As far as the 100th [win], you just think of all the players, you know, they’ve been amazing all this time. There’s been so many new ones and different ones over the years, so it’s fun to kind of reminisce on that.” Bishop said.
The Bears look forward to competing. “You gotta get better every day. We’re a fairly young team, so we just gotta make sure we get better every day,” Bishop said.
“I want to score more goals and learn how to be more involved in the team as time goes on,” Pavatt said.
The Bears’ next two games are in Tulsa, Oklahoma, against Oral Roberts and The University of Tulsa. The next home game for the Bears will be played against Grambling State on Friday, Sept. 9th.