The UD Women’s Soccer team out-fought Western Kentucky to a much-needed 3-0 bounce-back victory on Thursday evening at Baujan Field.  All three goals came in the pivotal first half of action as the Flyers improve to 4-2-0 on the season.  The Hilltoppers fall to 2-3-0.

Both teams were looking for payback after disappointing performances in their prior matches. The Flyers were taken to the woodshed in an inexplicable 6-1 loss at Purdue, while WKU suffered a more predictable 8-0 thrashing at #6 Arkansas.  As the opening minutes of the first half got underway, it was WKU exerting early control however, finding loose balls and figuring out ways to distribute the ball forward.  Dayton was a step slow in places and needed 5-7 minutes to find their rhythm with the ball at their own feet. Once they did however, the match slowly turned in favor of the Flyers and that momentum continued to build over the next 35 minutes.

Now first to the ball, UD dinked and dumped to teammates in open space to then play forward service along the touch lines. That’s were the game finally opened up and with room to work, Dayton began lobbing dangerous balls inside the WKU goal box. The effort paid off in the 15th minute when Noel Blain found Liv Grenda making a direct run at goal, executing a perfect cross-and-header to the back of the net to put the Flyers up 1-0.  It was textbook soccer and a textbook finish, something good to see after the painful defeat on Sunday in West Lafayette.

The Flyers weren’t finished however and scored less than 30 seconds later on a Blain toe-poke at the far post that caught Hilltopper GK Maddie Davis out of position to make a stop.  Suddenly UD was up 2-0 and in proper control of things. Better yet, the two finishes were the first two quality scoring chances in the first half. Efficiency did the heavy lifting and continued in the 28th minute when graduate senior Diana Benigno ripped a shot from outside the box that found the corner of the net to put UD up 3-0 and well on their way to victory barring a most epic second half collapse.  Defensively, the Flyer back line was clean despite a few unforced giveaways in front of the goal box while trying to play the ball out of traffic —  some of those errant passes attributed to the defensive midfielders getting a bit careless.  Goalkeeper Batoul Reda recorded just one save and didn’t have a lot to keep her busy.

The remaining 15 minutes of the half continued to favor the home team, but no further scoring opportunities were converted in spite of a couple decent looks.   UD had the better halftime stats. Shots were 8-4 with corner kicks even at 1-1.

The second half was once again controlled by the Flyers, but WKU exerted some additional effort to make the run of play at bit more competitive.  The Hilltoppers created a pair of half-chances, but sprayed several shots way off target and were unable to stretch Reda into making a diving save at the posts.  Meanwhile, UD kept attacking on the offensive end and fed Maddie Bowman along the right sideline to utilize her quickness advantage against the left fullback in charge of shutting her down. It didn’t work; Bowman repeatedly beat her to the flag and turned the corner, making dangerous runs direct and laterally that eventually resulted in crosses in the box. For a team struggling to find some pace, Bowman provided a shot in the arm for Head Coach Eric Golz’ attack.  While she didn’t find the net or finish with any assists, it was quality work that helped UD maintain firm control of the match.

UD had a chance to make it 4-0 in the final 20 minutes, but missed (another) penalty kick.  A shot in the final minute of the match hit the crossbar and also failed to find the back of the net.  Second half stats once again leaned in UD’s direction. Shots were 7-4 and corner kicks 6-0.  Overall it was a solid result from a decent body of work. The Hilltoppers might not make it to .500 this year (6-5-7 a year ago), but after the Purdue result any multi-goal victory margin is an about-face in the right direction.

Dayton travels to Louisville on Sunday for a 7pm kickoff against the Cardinals. The Cards were just 4-9-5 a year ago but are off to a 5-0-2 start to 2024.

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