Soccer Nets Four To Stay Perfect at Home

Friday, September 21

Waco, Texas

7:00 PM

Baylor

Iona

Soccer Nets Four To Stay Perfect at Home

9/21/2007 12:00:00 AM | Soccer

Sept. 21, 2007

Final Stats

Continuing their hot streak at home, the Baylor women's soccer team shut out Iona, 4-0, in front of 357 fans to unbeaten on the season at Betty Lou Mays Field on Friday.

The teams' leading scorer, senior Megan Sherrell, gave Baylor the early lead during the 16th minute of action. After gaining possession of the ball just on the home side of mid-field, Sherrell drove passed one defender, passed the ball to herself over another, and beat Iona's Krista Thorn to give the Lady Bears a 1-0 lead.

Baylor carried the 1-0 lead into the half, but Sherrell quickly added another in the 49t h minute, tying her with sophomore Beckah Brady for the most goals this season. Sherrell again had a one-on-one situation against Thorn, this time shooting it off Thorn's right side and into the lower left corner.

"We did a great job of executing our game plan tonight," head coach George Van Linder said. "I think we let some chances slip through our fingers, but so did Iona."

"We're on the right track now and we just have to stay focused. Winning at home is key, and we've been able to take care of that so far." Van Linder added.

The scoring, however, was not over the Lady Bears. Sherrell also picked up an assist, aiding on Lotto Smith's fourth goal of the season. After a header by Katie White bounced off the crossbar, Smith attacked the net and put the rebound away.

With the game already under control, Baylor tacked on one more in the 88t h minute. Jessica Hutton buried a cross from Nikki Watson for her third goal of the season.

The win for the Lady Bears improves Baylor to 5-2-1 on the season, its best start since the team opened the season 6-2 during its 1999 campaign. Baylor also improved its home record to 3-0 on the season. The last time the Lady Bears opened 3-0 at home was in 1998; that season Baylor went a perfect 8-0 at home during the regular season.

Senior goaltender Ashley Noah picked up her fifth win of the season in just over 61 minutes of work. She faced just two shots on the night before Gianna Quintana replaced her in net. Quintana also made two stops in the win.

Baylor out-shot Iona (1-6-0) 16-5 on the night and picked up 12 fouls compared to Iona's seven.

The Lady Bears will next be in action as they face Delaware (4-2-0) at 1:00 p.m. at Betty Lou Mays Field on Sunday. The contest will be the last non-conference game this season for Baylor before it begins Big 12 Conference action on Sept. 28.

Delaware is coming off of a 2-0 win over UT-San Antonio on Friday, a team the Lady Bears battled to a 1-1 draw earlier this season. Currently the Blue Hens have out-scored their opponents 12-0 in their four wins, but have been out-scored 7-1 in their two losses.