By Layne Saliba

@laynesaliba

This weekend began conference play for the Georgia Southern Women’s Soccer team (7-2-1, 2-0).

The Eagles headed into this new conference with some questions about the competition they would be facing and how they would be able to compete. Nevertheless, The Eagles were able to add two wins to their record, and more importantly, stay undefeated in the Sun Belt Conference

On Friday, the Eagles came out with a win against UL Monroe (7-4-1, 1-1) to get their first Sun Belt victory after beating the Warhawks 3-1. After one day of rest and travel, The Eagles were able to gain yet another Sun Belt win, defeating UL Lafayette (5-5-1, 0-2) with a score of 2-1.

Georgia Southern vs. UL Monroe

Looking at the stats, Georgia Southern and UL Monroe played a pretty even match. The Warhawks outshot The Eagles 10-12, but The Eagles made their shots count, scoring on three.

The first goal came during the 20th minute when sophomore forward Jennifer Wittick was able to score her fourth goal of the season off a free kick from junior forward Nora El-Shami. The assist from El-Shami was the first of her two for the day.

No more than 14 minutes later, The Warhawks were able to even the score on a penalty kick in the 34th minute.

With the score still tied at 1-1, sophomore forward Melinda Lukas joined Wittick when she tallied her fourth goal of the season after another assist came from the foot of El-Shami in the 60th minute, putting The Eagles ahead 2-1.

Finally, in the 77th minute, junior midfielder Stephanie Gratto sealed the victory after an assist from senior forward Sydnie Van Curen helped her sink one in the right side of the net. Gratto’s goal brought the game to a 3-1 close as the Eagles clenched their first Sun Belt win of the season.

After getting four saves, redshirt senior goalkeeper Katie Merson was able to pick up her sixth win of the season.

Georgia Southern vs. UL Lafayette

The Eagles were able to take advantage of a weakening team during the second half of Sunday’s game in Lafayette, LA.

However, during the first half it was all Ragin’ Cajuns. UL Monroe’s Elizabeth Manuel dribbled around defenders and was able to put one in the back of the net making it 1-0 in the 28th minute. The score would remain the same through the rest of the first half.

After some adjustments at halftime, The Eagles were able to come back out and score two second half goals to seal the win.

In the 56th minute, Van Curen got an assist from redshirt freshman defender Alana McShane and was able to score her first goal of the season by placing a header into the corner of the net, tying the game at 1-1.

Junior midfielder Cori Dulmage was able to find the corner of the goal for her first goal of the season as well, after being awarded a free kick in the 74th minute, bringing the score to 2-1.

That’s all the scoring that was needed for The Eagles to gain their second Sun Belt victory and remain undefeated in the conference. Merson picked up her seventh win of the season after three saves on the day.