Lady Jackets Finish Home Season on High Note (10/15/05)
Box Score

BILLINGS, MT – The MSU Billings women's soccer team bounced back from Wednesday's loss to finish their home season with a win over Carroll College, 2-1, Saturday.  The win improves the Jackets to 9-3-1 on the season.  The Saints are also 9-3-1 for their season.

Both the Yellowjackets and Saints were evenly matched teams with the Jackets holding a slight edge out-shooting the Saints 10-7.  The Jackets had seven shots on goal to the five put up by the Saints.  Saints keeper Nikki Skaggs made five saves on the day with Yellowjacket goalkeeper Megan Plank (So., Phoenix, AZ) chalking up five more saves to her credit bringing her career total to a school record 236.

“Our bench played a critical role in our success today,” said head coach Don Trentham.  “They (bench) allowed the team to be fresh throughout the game.  Melissa (Carlson) played four different positions for us today and excelled at each.  I am proud of her.  Carroll is a very strong team both offensively and defensively so it was good for us to earn the win today to build our confidence and momentum going into our conference games.”

The Jackets made the first strike offensively.  Carlson (Fr., D, Renton, WA) made a pass from the left side to teammate Brittney Sandau (So., MF, Billings).  Sandau maneuvered the ball through two Saints defenders to fire a shot into the center of the net catching the keeper off balance at 29:35 of the first half.  The goal was the ninth on the season for Sandau.

Just 57 seconds into the second half the Saints Cassidy Merrick made a pass from midfield to teammate Jacque Hunthausen.  Hunthausen passed a through ball to Jenni Annicchiarico who shot from the left side putting the ball into the right side of the goal.  The Jackets promptly answered back, scoring their second and eventual game winning goal at 48:48 of the second half.  Carlson earned her second assist of the game on a through ball that bounced off a defender in perfect position for Ally Stroup (Jr., MF, Ojai, CA) to go one on one with the Saints' keeper.  Stroup has made nine goals and five assists on the season giving her a team-leading 23 points.

“It was great playing with the team today,” said Stroup.  “We connected really well and played as one.  It was good to bounce back from our loss to Rocky and in looking forward to our games in Texas, we just want to play good soccer and hopefully that will earn us a spot in the Heartland Conference tournament and eventually the NCAA tournament.”

The Yellowjackets saw Lacey Albrent (Sr., D, Ojai, CA) play her final game on home turf as she will be graduating in May with a degree in Human Performance.

“This is my favorite team I have ever played on,” said Albrent.  “This team is more like a family to me.  I didn’t think of today as my final home game, I just went out and played like I normally would.  We still have four more games left in the regular season so we just need to keep playing strong."

“I really wanted Lacey to go out with a victory on her home field,” said Trentham.  “Her teammates helped make this possible.  Lacey is a very hard worker and I wish her the best.”

The Yellowjackets will play in Texas against Heartland Conference opponents Incarnate Word and St. Edwards October 21 and 24 respectively.  The team will then play a non-conference game against St. Angelo before returning home to play Rocky in game two of the Rimrock Cup.