Sept. 30, 2005

Box Score

DENVER- The University of Denver women's soccer team rebounded from a 4-0 loss to No. 9 Pepperdine last week and opened conference play with a 3-0 win over conference foe South Alabama this afternoon at Pioneer Field. Junior Lleane Grimditch (Boulder, Colo.), and sophomores Jenna Billingsley (Littleton, Colo.) and Kyle McFarlane (Bainbridge Island, Wash.) all scored. Sophomore Taryn Hemmings (Greeley, Colo.) added two assists. Goalkeeper, Dani Wiley (Littleton, Colo.) picked up her third shutout of the season as the Pioneers improve to 4-5-1.

"This is a good win for us," head coach Jeff Hooker said. "It's nice to open conference play with a win. As a team we wanted to be 2-0 this weekend and we started the weekend off on the right foot. We played well but we need to continue to get better with each match and take the experiences that we had in our non-conference matches and use them in league play."

The Pioneers dominated from the start of the match with several near misses in the first five minutes of the game. The Pioneers got on the board in the 15th minute of the match when Hemmings dribbled the ball down the sideline and played a perfect cross to the feet of Billingsley who put the ball in the back of the net for her first goal of the season.

Denver scored again just minutes later, when McFarlane, intending to set up a teammate, served up a cross that had just enough power and distance that it landed in the upper left corner of the goal just past the arms of South Alabama goalkeeper, Kelsie Langford, giving the Pioneers a 2-0 lead heading into halftime.

The Jaguars didn't give up and came out in the second half with a little more firepower. Denver also had a different look in the second half as Billingsley spent time in the backfield. The Pioneers continued to outshoot the Jaguars and had several shots from point blank range. South Alabama almost put one past Wiley, but Katie Roux (Spring, Texas) and the Pioneer defense came up with a huge save to preserve the Pioneer lead.

Grimditch put the game out of reach in the 87th minute, when Hemmings again dished a perfect ball out of the midfield to the feet of Gimdtich who fired it behind Langford, to give the Pioneers the 3-0 victory.

Denver returns to action Sunday Oct. 2 when they take on the newest member of the Sun Belt Conference, Troy. Kick off is set for noon at Pioneer Field.