SAN ANGELO - The Angelo State women's soccer team will travel to San Antonio for their fifth consecutive road game in a non-conference matchup with St. Mary's on Tuesday at 4 p.m.
The Belles enter the match sporting a 3-0-1 record and have racked up three shutout wins in a row. The 3-0-1 start is the second best start to a season in the program's 21 year history. ASU has relied on stingy defense opening which leads the LSC holding teams to a .25 goals against average.
Ashley Exford, the preseason LSC Defensive Player of the Year, has guided a defense that has not allowed a goal in the last 298 minutes of play. The Belles have not given up a first half goal this season.
Goalkeeper
Shantel Wittke is tied for first in the LSC lead with two shutouts and is third in save percentage (.944). She is also tops in the league in goals against average at .284. The senior has 12 career shutouts and is 17-5-2 in net in her career at ASU.
"I think it's been a combination of our two goalkeepers, Natalie and Shantel, doing a good job making good decisions when to come out and when to stay on their line," ASU head soccer coach
Travis McCorkle said.
McCorkle also noted that some new faces in the lineup are seeing more regular playing time.
"Mollie (Warren), Shay (Williams) and Callie (Smith) got minutes last year, but not nearly as many as they've gotten this year and I think they've done a great job," McCorkle said.
Warren (339), Smith (324) and Williams (302) are three of the top five in minutes played for ASU this season.
The scoring also has been distributed among several players as five different Belles have found the net this season.
Haley Mendel leads the team in scoring with two goals. Both goals came in the win over Ft. Lewis. It was the junior's eighth and ninth goals of her career.
Sierra Anderson,
Demi Tsambasis,
Selena Alvarez and
Tiffany Dang have also netted goals. It was Tsambasis' first goal of her ASU career.
Anderson is third in the LSC in shots (15) and shots per game (3.5). The senior has 55 career points and needs one point to tie Ashley Tatum for fifth on the ASU career point list. One goal will move her into sole possession of fourth on the ASU career goals list with 26.
A total of 14 players have attempted at least one shot this season with ASU totaling 53 shots on the year. The Belles have dominated the first half by a 27-15 margin in shots with four of the team's six goals coming in the first half.
St. Mary's has opened their season to the tune of a 2-1 start as they have outscored their opponents 7-3. McCorkle mentioned the theme of tough, hard-fought matches will continue. In 2014, the Belles topped St. Mary's 4-0 with four second half goals as Anderson scored two. The Rattlers hold the series advantage at 9-8-1.
"St. Mary's is always a very hard working team, last year we played them, they were very skillful," McCorkle said. "I don't think the score was an indication of how the match went, it was a very close game."
The Rattlers return their second leading goal-scorer from last year in Kristal Williams, who scored seven goals in 2014. Williams has one this season. As a team, the Rattlers have only allowed three goals and goalkeepers Caitlin McCarrell and Alyssa Taramona have combined for 15 saves.
"It's going to be like all of our games, a very tough match," McCorkle said.
