Ladies’s Soccer Falls in Season Opener to Detroit Mercy
FORT MYERS, Fla. – The FGCU girls’s soccer crew opened the 2022 marketing campaign on Thursday night time at Pickering Area, falling to Detroit Mercy, 2-1.
“We made a few errors defensively and it value us,” mentioned head coach Jim Blankenship. “We fought again, getting the purpose from Kate [Russell] and got here shut a few occasions to tying it, but it surely simply wasn’t our night time.”
Freshman Kate Russell (Mill Creek, Wash./Henry M. Jackson HS) scored FGCU’s first purpose of the season within the 57th minute to get the Eagles again within the recreation after falling behind by a few targets.
The Eagles outshot the Titans, 19-11, together with a 7-5 benefit on pictures on purpose. Additionally they had the sting in nook kicks, 9-3.
FGCU had the primary probability of the sport within the 10th minute when junior Louise Lillback (Stockholm, Sweden/Tibble Gymnasium) bought forward of the protection with the simply the goalie to beat, however Marissa Silver was as much as the duty and made the save.
Detroit bought on the board a few minutes later within the 12th minute, benefiting from a defensive mistake by the Eagles. Sophia Blankenship bought round Eagle goalkeeper graduate pupil Katie Sullivan (Wheaton, Ailing./Wheaton North HS/Creighton) and put a shot previous graduate pupil Margaret Berry (Holly, Mich./Fenton HS/Boston College), who was making an attempt to make a miraculous defensive save.
The Eagles had a few probabilities within the first half to tie it up however Detroit Mercy maintained its lead because the halftime horn sounded.
Within the second half, Gabby Ketola put the Titans up 2-0 with purpose within the 49th minute.
FGCU responded lower than 10 minutes later as Russell corralled the ball off a nook from sophomore Ashley Labbe (Lake Price, Fla./Suncoast HS) and fired a shot from the fitting facet of the field into the decrease left nook of the online to get the Eagles on the board.
The Eagles saved attacking as they tried to seek out the equalizer and had their finest probability within the 70th minute as graduate pupil Libby Helverson (West Des Moines, Iowa/Valley HS/Drake) headed the ball previous the keeper, however defender Hailey Wentzloff was on the road for the Titans and headed it away.
The Inexperienced and Blue had a few extra pictures within the closing 20 minutes, however couldn’t discover the again of the online as Detroit Mercy held on to win.
FGCU will look to rebound on Sunday as they journey to Tampa to tackle South Florida. Kickoff from Corbett Stadium is about for six p.m.
For full protection of FGCU girls’s soccer, observe the Eagles on Twitter, Instagram and Fb at @FGCU_WSoccer and on-line at www.FGCUAthletics.com. You can too signal as much as have information on FGCU girls’s soccer or different packages delivered on to your inbox by visiting www.fgcuathletics.com/e mail.
E.A.G.L.E. CAMPAIGN
IT TAKES A TEAM to attain our latest purpose – a $10 million marketing campaign to handle student-athlete wants in continued tutorial success, life expertise, psychological well being, diet, and power and conditioning in addition to departmental wants in facility enlargement and enchancment in addition to mentoring and management coaching for coaches and workers. The identify embodies our mission and the aim of the E.A.G.L.E. Marketing campaign – Eagle Athletics Producing Lifetime Excellence. Be part of Our Staff and pledge your reward at this time to assist the Eagles of tomorrow!
COACH JIM BLANKENSHIP
A veteran of over twenty years in collegiate teaching, head coach Jim Blankenship, who was named the ASUN Coach of the 12 months in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2019, has constructed FGCU girls’s soccer right into a yearly contender within the ASUN Convention and a rising program within the South Area in simply 13 seasons. Blankenship began this system in 2007 and has since guided the Eagles to 13 double-digit win seasons, culminating with ASUN Common Season Championships in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2021. In 2011 and 2012 he additionally led the Eagles to back-to-back ASUN Match titles as they grew to become the primary crew within the historical past of the college to make it to the NCAA Match. The Eagles went on to win the 2014 ASUN Match and hosted the primary NCAA Championship occasion on campus. The Eagles earned their fourth NCAA Match look with the 2015 ASUN Match Championship and gained their first NCAA recreation at USF in 2015 whereas ending twenty fourth within the nation. In 2016, the Eagles made it three-consecutive journeys to the NCAA Match with a third-straight ASUN Match title. A yr later, the Eagles grew to become the primary ASUN girls’s soccer program to make four-straight NCAA Tournaments with one other event title in 2017. Blankenship has guided FGCU to a 184-70-27 (.705) general file via the primary 15 seasons of this system’s existence, together with an 93-19-15 (.791) mark within the ASUN. Blankenship’s spectacular profession file of 424-141-38 (.736) over 31 seasons has come whereas main FGCU, the College of Miami, Lynn College and St. Thomas College.
E.A.G.L.E. CAMPAIGN
IT TAKES A TEAM to attain our latest purpose – a $10 million marketing campaign to handle student-athlete wants in continued tutorial success, life expertise, psychological well being, diet, and power and conditioning in addition to departmental wants in facility enlargement and enchancment in addition to mentoring and management coaching for coaches and workers. The identify embodies our mission and the aim of the E.A.G.L.E. Marketing campaign – Eagle Athletics Producing Lifetime Excellence. Be part of Our Staff and pledge your reward at this time to assist the Eagles of tomorrow!
#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors occasions in November and April to learn the FGCU Campus Meals Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Meals Financial institution (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics’ charities of selection. For extra data, together with find out how to make a contribution, please go to www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and make the most of the hashtag #FeedFGCU to assist elevate consciousness.
ABOUT FGCU
FGCU groups have mixed to win an unimaginable 92 convention common season and event titles in simply 15 seasons on the Division I stage. Moreover, in simply 11 seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a mixed 45 groups or people compete in NCAA championships. In 2022, the lads’s golf crew grew to become the primary program to earn at at-large berth to the NCAA Match. Eight FGCU packages have earned a top-25 nationwide rating of their respective sport – together with girls’s basketball (No. 20, 2021-22), seaside volleyball (No. 20, 2022) and each males’s soccer (2018, 2019) and ladies’s soccer (2018) as 4 of the latest. In 2016-17, the Inexperienced and Blue posted a department-best sixth-place end within the DI-AAA Learfield Administrators’ Cup and top-100 displaying nationally, forward of a number of Energy-5 and FBS establishments. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida finest seven groups earn the NCAA’s Public Recognition Award for his or her Tutorial Progress Price of their sport. FGCU additionally collectively earned a file 3.50 GPA within the classroom within the fall 2020 semester and has outperformed the overall College undergraduate inhabitants for 26 consecutive semesters. The previous 5 semesters (Fall 2019 – Spring 2022) noticed one other milestone reached as all 15 packages achieved a 3.0-or-higher cumulative crew GPA. The Eagles additionally served an all-time excessive 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 – being acknowledged as one among two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Neighborhood Service Award introduced by the Fiesta Bowl.
