Women’s Soccer Extends C-USA Streak to Four with Win over Southern Miss

Sunday, September 30

Boca Raton, Fla.

1 p.m.

Florida Atlantic

-760, 400 CUSA

Southern Miss

-830, 220 CUSA

Southern Miss

Florida Atlantic

Photo by: JC Ridley/Owlpix.com

Women’s Soccer Extends C-USA Streak to Four with Win over Southern Miss

9/30/2018 5:01:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic University women's soccer team defeated Southern Miss on Sunday, 2-0, to stay an undefeated 4-0-0 in Conference USA play and run their overall win streak to five. The four straight wins to start a league schedule is a first in FAU women's soccer program history.

Turning Point:
After dominating the possession in the first half (13 corner kicks and a 7-1 shot advantage), the Owls (7-6-0, 4-0-0 C-USA) were still knotted up in a scoreless tie with the Golden Eagles (8-3-0, 2-2-0 C-USA). But only 1:03 into the second half, Mary O'Hara drew a foul in the box, and Ebba Blomqvist made good on the penalty kick to open up the scoring.

The Finish:
Still clinging to the 1-0 lead, Pernille Velta was in the right place at the right time just over 15 minutes later. O'Hara again was involved, drilling a shot attempt off a USM defender, but towards the goal, left side. Velta took it off the ricochet and fired it right of the Golden Eagle goalkeeper to double the advantage. FAU still controlled possession after, with four corner kicks compared to USM's four shots the rest of the way (and two were cleanly saved by Jennifer Ocampo).

Notables:

Ocampo's fourth straight clean sheet came against seven total USM attempts, with four saves
Blomqvist's third goal of the year is her second successful penalty kick of the year and fifth PK as an Owl in two seasons
Velta has two goals now, both coming in the last four matches, and O'Hara picked up her second assist
Ocampo, Blomqvist, Hailey Landrus, Alex Maxson and Jessica Monteiro all played the entirety
Velta had a team-high four shots, three on goal, and all three of Blomqvist's were on target
As a team, FAU put nine of their 16 attempts on goal, meaning they had more SOG (nine) than USM had total shots (seven, just four on)
The Owls kept pace atop the C-USA standings with Charlotte, who topped Marshall Sunday 3-2 to also move to 4-0-0 against league opponents
The 20 total corner kicks by the Owls were more than double than they'd had in a match all year (nine on two occasions). They notched a new season high just 31 minutes into Sunday's match

Quotable:
"We created a number of good looks in and around the box, which ended up leading to more corner kicks," said Head Coach Patrick Baker. "We were in their end and we were playing good pressure, just couldn't find that moment of magic … To start the second half, we got the PK early. Ebba (Blomqvist) came up, cool, calm and collected as she always is, and pocketed it in the corner, and P (Pernille Velta) scored a wonderful goal, off the turn, bouncing ball, just a beautiful connection."

Full Video with Coach Baker:

What's Next:
Next weekend, the Owls are on the road for just one match, Friday against UTSA, an 8 p.m. Eastern time start. The final two home contests of the season follow: Thursday, Oct. 11 vs. Old Dominion and Senior Day on Sunday, Oct. 14 hosting Middle Tennessee. To get tickets, go to www.fausports.com or call 1-866-FAU-OWLS.