Minnesota State Soccer hits the ground running

The Minnesota State Women’s soccer team is back in action Friday for a home match against the Central Missouri Jennies. 

The Mavs couldn’t have asked for a better start to their season as they dismantled Oklahoma Baptist 7-0 in Thursday’s regular season opener. The Mavs came flying out of the gates by scoring four goals in under nine minutes early in the first half. 

MSU Senior Allie Williams led the way by racking up two goals and two assists. This was Williams’ third career multi-goal performance for the Mavs. Sophomore Avery Korsching got her first career goal for the Mavs in the 14th minute. She tallied her second in the 66th minute. 

After their dominant victory, the Mavs traveled to Kansas City, Missouri to take on Emporia State in a game that ended in a 0-0 draw Sunday. Despite not getting the win, head coach Brian Bahl said the team took away plenty of positives from the game, one of which was  keeping their star player, Mackenzie Dimarco, off the scoreboard. 

“I thought we dealt with her really well. She’s a two-time All-American already, she’ll be an All-American again this year. We limited her to three shots in that game and she scored like 23 goals last year. So to shut her down as much as we were able to do and get a shutout against that team. That’s a team that hasn’t been shutout in over a year,” Bahl said. 

Along with keeping the opposition from scoring, the Mavs had chances to potentially get the win. 

“I think it was a very even game overall, but I did feel like we did enough to win the game. We had a lot of chances in the second half as the game progressed that I thought we were right on the cusp of putting one in the back of the net. Three or four chances that probably should have went in the back of the net. Some great goalkeeping on their part,” Bahl said. 

The team’s upcoming opponents are coming off a 3-0 victory over Southwest Minnesota State and are ranked 13th in the conference. 

“They don’t really have any weak spots. They’re very very fast up top. So we’ll have to be prepared to face the fastest frontline across the board that we’ve seen and one of the fastest I think we’ll see all year.

They’re just solid everywhere. They’ve got a great midfield group, a really solid backline and so they’ll pose some really tough tests for us. It’s just more about I think us going out and continuing to do what we do better and better each time we adapt to who we play,” Bahl said. 

Bahl also said he believes there are plenty of things his side brings to the table the Jennies will have to contend with. 

“We have a very fast frontline as well. We can create a lot of chances, we can counter very well, we can defend well so far and I think we’ve been a tough team to break down. I think right now we’re playing very well in all facets of the game,” Bahl said. 

After Friday’s game, the Mavs remain home for their next match Sunday versus Grand Valley State.  

Header Photo: The Mavs kept Mackenzie Dimarco quiet in a stalemate against Emporia State Sunday, September 3rd. (Lilly Anderson/The Reporter)

Write to Mohamed Warsame at mohamed.warsame@mnsu.edu