TMU Women's Soccer completes road trip with another shutout win

TMU Women's Soccer completed a successful season-opening road trip to Arizona with another multi-goal, shutout victory on Thursday morning, defeating Benedictine University Arizona, 2-0.
 
Across the two games, the Mustangs outscored their opponents, 8-0.
 
"Any coach in the world would take this start to the season," Master's Head Coach Curtis Lewis said. "It was great to get another different goal scorer in Anay and our first girl to grab two in Ellie. Having 7 different girls score so far this season is great and it takes the pressure off any one person bearing the load."
 
On Tuesday, it took TMU almost the entire first half to score in its 6-0 win over Park University Gilbert, but the Mustangs didn't wait nearly as long this time around.
 
Anay Garcia scored her first goal of the young season in just the eighth minute of play, finding the back of the net off an Emma Hopkins cross. It was Hopkins' second assist in as many games to start the campaign.
 
"We did a good job in the first half of getting our wingbacks in underneath and creating chances," Lewis said.
 
Master's doubled its lead at the beginning of the second half, when Elizabeth Radmilovich scored her team-leading second goal of the season in the 49th minute, off an assist from Alexandria Dunn.
 
From then on, TMU's defense held firm to earn a second-consecutive shutout.
 
"In the second half I was really pleased with our center backs and their willingness to step correctly into the half spaces and smother out their offensive threats," Lewis said. "The team did a great job getting a shutout, with Ariana Romero making her first big save of the season to preserve the clean sheet."
 
Master's had additional opportunities to score, with a total of 14 shots on goal, but the Redhawks' goalkeeper made 12 saves to prevent the Mustangs from adding to their lead.
 
"We are spreading the field well and getting numbers forward to create quality chances," Lewis said. "We really should have put more chances away today."
 
Regardless, Lewis was pleased with his team's ability to keep its opponent out of the net once again.
 
"One of the things we are talking about this year is if teams can't score on you, then you will never lose games," Lewis said. "It sounds so simple but the confidence it brings knowing you can keep clean sheets frees everyone up else to play loosely.
 
"I'm proud of the girls today as they fought through the heat again at 107 degrees and we were able to use our deep bench."
 
TMU (2-0 overall) is set to return to Reese Field for the first time this season on Saturday at 11 a.m. against Southern Oregon University.
 
Watch the match live on the GSAC Sports Network or follow along with the live stats.