The Hilltoppers will look to continue their winning mentality at Vanderbilt on Thursday.
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Coming off one of the biggest wins in program history, WKU Soccer will round out its 2018 non-conference schedule at 7 p.m. on Thursday evening as the Lady Toppers make the short trek to Nashville, Tenn., to square off against SEC foe Vanderbilt.
Any WKU fans who make the trip are asked to park in the 25th Street Garage for Thursday night’s match. The match will also be streamed on SEC Network Plus, available both online and through the ESPN app for a subscription fee.
WKU (2-2-2) tallied eight first-half goals en route to a 9-0 victory over Kentucky Christian at the WKU Soccer Complex on Monday night, matching the second-most goals ever scored in a single match in school history. The Lady Toppers’ 13 total assists established a new school record, topping the 11 against Trevecca Nazarene on Sept. 26, 2001. WKU finished Monday’s match with a 37-0 advantage in total shots over the Lady Knights and has taken 20 or more shots in each of its last three matches.
Two freshmen, Ambere Barnett and Olivia Stanley, lead the Lady Toppers with three goals apiece this season, and Stanley has scored all three of her goals in WKU’s two most recent matches, including a pair against Kentucky Christian on Monday. Another underclassmen, sophomore Tally Bishop, also scored two goals against the Lady Knights after missing WKU’s first three matches of the season.
As a team, WKU has already fired 116 shots through its first six matches, an average of 19.3 per match. Those 116 shots are already more than halfway to WKU’s 2017 total of 201 across 17 matches, and the Lady Toppers are attempting nearly eight more shots per match so far this season.
In goal, WKU made history on Monday evening as Sydney Engle relieved starter Bailee Witt, playing the final 17 minutes of the match. Engle, a former four-year volleyball standout for the Lady Toppers, became only the second known student-athlete in C-USA history, alongside Rice’s Kristina Hoban, to appear in at least one match in both volleyball and women’s soccer for the same school.
Witt has been strong in goal since taking over as the starter against Ole Miss, making 18 saves and sporting a goals against average of 1.30 across 555 minutes of playing time. The true freshman shared the shutout against Kentucky Christian with Engle as WKU held its opponent without scoring for the first time in 2018.
Vanderbilt (5-1) enters Thursday’s match on a five-match winning streak since dropping its opener against Florida State on Aug. 16. The Commodores have surrendered only three goals all season and shut out their two most recent opponents, defeating Saint Louis (2-0 on Aug. 31) and North Alabama (4-0 on Sept. 2). Vanderbilt will also be WKU’s second SEC opponent this season after the Lady Toppers previously dropped a 4-0 decision against Ole Miss.
Haley Hopkins and Kaylann Boyd lead Vanderbilt with four goals and 15 shots apiece, and Hopkins sits atop the team leaderboard with 10 points on the year. Leila Azari has dished out a team-best four assists through six matches, and the Commodores have split their goalkeeping minutes almost evenly between Taiana Tolleson (276 minutes) and Lauren Demarchi (251 minutes).
WKU will be aiming for its first win over the Commodores in the fifth all-time meeting between the two sides. Last season, the Lady Toppers dropped a tight 1-0 decision to Vanderbilt on Sept. 8, 2017, in the most recent meeting.
With WKU’s non-conference slate in the books after Thursday’s bout, the Lady Toppers will open their 2018 C-USA schedule next Sunday, Sept. 16, as they head south to take on Southern Miss at 1 p.m. Now in Year 5 as a member of the conference, WKU will be meeting the Golden Eagles for the fourth time and has an unbeaten record in the series, holding a 2-0-1 edge. In the most recent meeting on Sept. 21, 2017, last season, the Lady Toppers and Golden Eagles battled to a 0-0 draw after 110 minutes in Hattiesburg, Miss.