Another record falls

By Gabe Whisnant
Published in Sports on October 20, 2005 1:58 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- Just when it seemed as if Mount Olive's women's soccer program had eclipsed every school record imaginable over the last two seasons, another record falls.

On Wednesday at Trojan Field, Mount Olive posted a school record for most goals in a Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference match in an 11-0 win over St. Andrews. The output was the third-highest single-game total in school history overall.

Mount Olive (11-6 overall) improved to 7-2 in CVAC play. The Trojans, currently alone in fourth place in the conference standings, are in control of their own destiny to host a first-round conference tournament game.

Mount Olive has now won seven of its last nine games with five shutouts during that stretch.

"Early in the year it was a question of us having a lot of freshman and a key injury to Heidi Philip," Mount Olive coach Chris Shaw said. "At times we've started seven or eight freshman and there's an adjustment from high school to college. We've also made changes to personnel and the formation as well.

"The players we've asked to play certain places have embraced that and it's worked out well."

The Trojans were balanced during the offensive explosion.

Gina Dos Santos, April Jacobs and Caitlyn Wright tallied two goals each, while Emily Escolas, Lyndsay Brennan, Jackie Jiminez and Kristine Gallagher scored one goal apiece. Mount Olive's first goal came on a deflection off of a St. Andrews defender.

Dos Santos remains the CVAC's leading goal scorer with 18 on the season, while Brennan (nine goals) and Escloas (six goals) are among the team leaders.

Jacobs, the conference leader in assists, dished out three more and now has 12 on the year. Gallagher added two assists, while Brittney Robich, Amber Cantrell and Wright notched one assists each.

"We have a lot of players who can contribute and today we demonstrated that," Shaw said. "When you have a central defender (Wright) that can move up front and score two goals, it shows we are a pretty balanced team."

As impressive as the offensive performance, Mount Olive held the visitors from Laurinburg to no shots on goal, while the Trojans fired 31 shots.

Mount Olive goalies Ali O'Steen and Heather Ulep combined on the Trojans sixth shutout overall.

Mount Olive, the defending tournament champion, plays its regular season home finale Saturday as the Trojans play host to Lees-McRae in a rematch of the championship match of last year's CVAC Tournament. Match time is 1 p.m. at Trojan Field.

"From here on out there are not games that aren't big. We've got two conference games left and are going up to face a Catawba team that's nationally ranked," Shaw said. "If we can win out, we'll be sitting right where we were last year."

St. Andrews remains winless at 0-13 overall and 0-9 in league play.