The Lady Bison secured another conference win as they beat the Stetson Hatters 2-0 at the Lipscomb Soccer Complex.
The game started off in favor of Lipscomb as there won three straight corner kicks the Lady Bison. This would be a good indicator of how the first half would go as the Lady Bison outshot the Hatters eight to two. Both teams would have glimpsed in front of the goal before the end of the first half.
The second half was no different. The Lady Bison would have an array of chances offensively, putting up nine shots to the Hatters five.
Then in the 69th minute, Lipscomb finally broke through and scored on a great solo run from Macy Douglas that was set up by a pass from Molly Grant. Douglas, who is a freshman, has really come into her own in the past couple of games as she scored her third goal of the season. Grant, who is fourth on the team in terms of assists, got her third assist of the season.
After the first goal of the game, Stetson didn’t back down as they had a number of changes in the Lipscomb half. The Hatters had a couple of shots that yielded some opportunities for a goal, but nothing would come of them. Then, they had a corner kick that was deflected and then cleared away.
This set up a scoring chance from Lipscomb that would ultimately be saved by Stetson goalie Lara Bates. However, after a bad clearance from the Hatters, Lipscomb capitalized on a cross in the 86th minute from Hailey Eck to Maycie McKay to make it 2-0 and secure the win for the Lady Bison with four minutes left to play.
Whether it was a lack of offensive production for the Hatters or great defense for Lipscomb, the Lady Bison move to 11-5-1 and 5-1-1 in conference play.
Lipscomb Coach Kevin O’Brien shared his thoughts on the win.
“We knew it was gonna be a tough game, Stetson’s got some really good players,” O’Brien said. “It just took a while for us to break them down, thankfully we did. That goal really allowed us to dictate the tempo and finish the game with a win.”
One stat that really stood out for Lipscomb was that goalie Melissa Gray only had two saves as she didn’t face a lot of shots on goal due to the great game by the defense. Another stat that demonstrated how Lipscomb dictated the game was the shot total as they had 17 to the Hatters seven. Coach O’Brien shared his thoughts on what it’s like to not have to worry about his team being one-dimensional.
“If you want to be successful you can’t always be one-dimensional and only be a great attacking team or defending team. Our forwards know that they are the first line of defense and they’ve got to be working hard,” said O’Brien.
The Lady Bison have played their final home game of the season as they look to prepare for an away game against North Alabama. This will be the last regular-season game for the Lady Bison. They are currently tied for first place in the ASUN conference and are looking to lock down the number one cede in the tournament.
Photo Courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics.