Gophers Notch 5th Win of Season with Shutout of DePaul
DePaul’s Megan Pryz snatches the ball from a waiting Taylor Uhl and Haley Helverson for the Gophers. Photo by Jeremy Olson – www.digitalgopher.net
The Minnesota Gophers Women’s Soccer team sprang back from their 1-0 overtime defeat on Friday night to win 3-0 on Sunday over DePaul in the team’s second match of the Minnesota Gold Classic.
It was a dominating performance for both the Gophers and Taylor Uhl. The sophomore forward accounted for all three goals giving Uhl her 4th career hat trick and her second of the season. Uhl now has 11 goals on the year after 8 matches giving her a 1.4 goal per game average. The win raises the Gophers’ record to 5-3-0. They have outscored their opponents 21 to 9 in those 8 games.
Gophers coach Stefanie Golan says Taylor Uhl “is awesome,” but she points out that other players are helping Uhl to get looks at goal. “She’s a big time player and big time players come up at big time moments. The rest of the team builds around her. We know she’s going to score goals but we don’t necessarily expect her to score goals. You see a lot of other players getting looks at goal because of her but she’s getting a lot of her looks at goal because of the work being put in by some of those other players. (Katie) Thyken has a great eye for what Taylor’s going to do. Allie Philips is another one, so there are a lot of players putting her in position to be the finisher.”
Things will now get tougher for both the Gophers and Uhl as the team heads into the Big Ten season with their season opener against Ohio State next Sunday, September 16th, in Columbus with a kick off of 12:00 pm CT. The Buckeyes are 5-2-0 on the season.
DePaul’s Kylie Nordness and the Gophers’ Allie Phillips grapple for position to get to a lose ball. Photo by Jeremy Olson.
2012 Minnesota Gold Classic
In other Minnesota Gold Classic results, SDSU defeated the Gophers 1-0 in overtime on Friday night and dominated Iowa State 2-1 on Sunday. Iowa State had defeated DePaul 2-0 on Friday night.
2012 Minnesota Gold Classic All-Tournament Team
Megan Jurado – MF, San Diego State*
Rachel Boaz – GK, San Diego State**
Haley Palmer – D, San Diego State
Hannah Keane – F, San Diego State
MacKenzie Misel – D, Minnesota
Olivia Bagnall – MF, Minnesota
Taylor Uhl – F, Minnesota*
Megan Longobardi – MF, Iowa State
Jessie Stewart – D, Iowa State
Kylie Nordness – D, DePaul
Kelly Blumberg – MF, DePaul
* denotes Co-Offensive MVPs
** denotes Defensive MVP
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I like what Katie Thyken does on the field. A very complete player with great field awareness and wonderful soccer IQ.