The Florida Gulf Coast University women’s soccer team took to the road this past weekend. The Eagles traveled to Coral Gables where they triumphed over the University of Miami Hurricanes on Friday night, 2-1.
In Miami, the Eagles put up five shots to the Hurricanes’ one during the first half of the match. At halftime, the board remained scoreless. It wasn’t until the 54th minute of play when Shannen Wacker settled a ball inside the box. She passed to Paulina Speckmaier who buried her first goal of the 2014 season giving the Eagles a 1-0 advantage.
Only four minutes after Speckmaier’s tally, Ashley Parks won a loose ball and handed it over to Atlantic Sun Player of the Week Tabby Tindell near midfield. Tindell carried the ball down the length of the Miami half of the field, before beating the UM goalkeeper to tally her third goal of the season, giving FGCU a 2-0 lead.
Miami attempted three corner kicks over a span of one minute to combat the FGCU lead. When the third corner kick from the right side in the 81st minute was deflected by an FGCU defender,  a Miami player corralled the free ball and moved it to a teammate at the top of the box who turned and shot to the near post finding its mark behind FGCU keeper Brittany Brown, cutting the FGCU lead to 2-1.
The Green and Blue continued to play hard to secure its victory over the Hurricanes. FGCU finished with a 9-5 shot advantage, and Brown made three saves.
“Outstanding performance by our team,” said head coach Jim Blankenship in a previous statement. “I’m proud of the girls, how well they fought and how much heart they played with. I thought our defense was stifling; it was just an outstanding performance all around, to hold a team that good to only six shots is very impressive, just a tremendous effort.”