Columbia, Mo. – This afternoon the fifth ranked Columbia College women's soccer team was back on the field when they played host to the Lindenwood University-Belleville (Ill.) Lynx in their first conference match of the season. The Cougars, who finished last year with an 11-1 mark in the AMC, were able to pick up right where they left off a season ago as they defeated the Lynx by a final score of 9-1 to improve to 6-0 on the season and 1-0 in conference play.
Prior to the game, the NAIA national office announced its second NAIA Coaches' Top 25 Poll of the 2017 regular season. Columbia College, who ranked in the top five for the first time in program history in the previous poll, remained fifth in the latest poll after defeating Taylor (Ind.) University in a 1-0 victory last week.
The Cougars came out in the first half of the game and dominated the Lynx from the start. It took just four minutes to get on the board as Kelsey Mirts found Molly Klein in the middle of the box who was able to slide it past the Lindenwood-Belleville keeper for her first goal of the season. The Cougars added five more goals in the half including a hat trick from Laurie Frew, a goal from Kelsey Mirts, and one final goal from Lucy Kingsley to take a 6-0 lead into the halftime break.
In the second half of the game the Cougars were able to add three early goals as Samantha Bassler and Sydney Griggs each added their first goals of the game and Molly Klein who finished off her second of the match. Lindenwood-Belleville did their best to get back into the match and were able to cut the lead to 9-1 after a penalty shot but that was the only goal they would get as Columbia closed out the game to notch their first conference win of the season.
Madison Boyken and Erin Jones split time in goal tonight as the two combined for three saves in the victory.
The Cougars are back in action on Friday, September 15th when they travel to Henderson, Tennessee, to take on Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) University in an AMC matchup. The game is set to kick off at 5 p.m.
