Henley Helps Lead Jaguars Past Nicholls State 3-0
Henley, a freshman from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, scored two goals against Nicholls State on Sunday in her first collegiate game to help lead the Jaguars past the Colonels 3-0. | Photo: usajaguars.com
The South Alabama soccer team rebounded on Sunday to defeat Nicholls State 3-0 to even their record at 1-1 in their opening weekend of play. They fell to UAB on Friday night 1-2 in 2OT.
Danielle Henley, a freshman from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, recorded a pair of goals with classmate Rio Hardy from Workington, England netting the other goal in the match. Henley scored both of her goals in the first 15 minutes of play, the first on a shot from distance at the 5:40 mark, then the second by controlling a corner kick from fellow freshman Tiina Trutsi and knocking it in the net at the 14:12 mark.
Hardy scored her first career collegiate goal shortly before halftime by converting a breakaway off of a pass from freshman Alyssa Pejic at the 44:39 mark.
“They played excellent,” Winkworth said. “Dan’s first strike was with her left peg; the keeper nearly got to it but she managed to put it in the top corner. The second strike was a tidy finish under pressure, and then Rio’s was on a 1-on-1. Those things are stressful when you go 1-on-1 with a goalkeeper and she was composed and put it away.
“We created a lot of quality chances today and hopefully we can continue to do that because the more good chances we create, hopefully the more goals we’ll score.”
The Jags shined on defense as they only allowed four shots total and none on goal. Freshman Courtney Baum earned the win in her first collegiate start.
“We defended from front to back today,” Winkworth stated. “Steffi (Hardy) and Nini (Rabsatt-Smith) were brilliant back there together today. Alyssa (Mayer) and Nikki (Shirtcliffe) too, and Emi (Passini) when she came on as well, were excellent in getting to their outside players—they had a lot of running to do out there and they did it very well and stayed organized. We stayed compact, were organized defensively and if we don’t concede goals, we’ll be very difficult to beat.”
South Alabama will return to action this weekend when they travel to Troy to play in the Trojan Classic. The Jags will face Tennessee Tech on Friday and Kennesaw State on Sunday.