PHILADELPHIA – Monday night marked the first of many matches to come from the Dunning-Cohen Champions Field in Penn Park, and the University of Pennsylvania women's soccer team christened its temporary home field with a rainy, 1-0 shutout victory over Fairleigh Dickinson.
Senior
Sizzy Lawton scored her third goal of the season, and freshman goalkeeper
Annabel Austen made five saves for the clean sheet in her first collegiate start.
The Red and Blue tallied 11 shots on the night from five different players. Lawton led the match with four,
Anuli Okafor had three,
Peyton Raun tallied two and
Emily Pringle and
Janae Stewart also recorded shots.
Quaker Notemeal
*With the win over FDU, head coach
Dr. Krissy Turner is now three victories away from career win No. 300.
*Penn continued its trend of scoring first as the Red and Blue have scored first in seven of the ten matches that have seen goals this season. The Quakers are 3-0-4 when scoring first, 0-1-2 when their opponent scores first.
*Penn outshot FDU, 11-5. The Red and Blue recorded eight corner kicks to six by the Knights.
*Austen made her first collegiate start and recorded five saves as she produced her first career clean sheet.
How It Happened
The FDU Knights maintained possession through the first 15 minutes of the match, but Penn was able to fire off a pair of shots from the feet of Pringle and Raun.
Austen was tested early in the match as she made three saves in the first 27 minutes, and the match was scoreless at halftime.
Penn wasted no time on the attack in the early part of the second half as it fired off four shots leading up to the hour mark. Lawton had two shots, one off target and one right at the keeper, and Okafor and Raun also recorded shots that went wide of the goal.
Just past the hour mark,
Sara Readinger sent a ball deep to a racing Lawton, who made her way through the box and slotted one past the charging FDU keeper for her third goal of the season.
Not more than two minutes after Penn took the 1-0 lead, Okafor made her way through the Knights defense and nearly doubled the Quakers' advantage, but her shot was saved. After FDU had its own scoring chance, forcing Austen to make her fourth save of the night, Okafor responded with her third shot of the half.
In the final minutes of the match, Austen made an extended play to keep her clean sheet intact.
UP NEXT
The Quakers return to Ivy League action on Saturday as they host Columbia at Penn Park. Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m.
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