Broncos Shutout Vermont

The Western Michigan University women’s soccer team opened the 2005 season with a bang and a record setting performance. Playing in the TD Banknorth Classic in Burlington, Vermont the Broncos defeated host school Vermont 2-0 on Friday.

Senior Chelsea McNally wasted no time getting the Broncos on the board on a heads up play. Just 2:57 into the contest junior Chantal Robinson took a corner kick and McNally put it in the net on a header.

The Broncos exhibition loss to Northwestern clearly was a valuable learning experience for the Broncos because they came out early and applied pressure from the start and was reward for their efforts. With 12 minutes gone by on the game clock in the first half the Broncos got on the board again when Senior Stephanie Johnson took a server from senior Andrea Tyler and put it in the back of the net off the back post. “We came out pretty well, and kept our momentum going by attacking,” head coach Mike Haines said.

After Johnson’s goal, the Broncos defense took over. “We had two nice goals and stayed on top of them. We also improved defensively from our exhibition loss,” commented coach Haines. The Broncos defense completely turned around following that loss.

Friday, senior goalkeeper Kate Perz face just two shots during the game. With the help of a strong defensive effort she recorded her 15th career shutout and recorded her 26th career victory at Western Michigan University. She passed Jennifer Haller (1996-1999) on the Broncos all-time winningest goalkeeper list.

The Broncos will play New Hampshire on Sunday morning at 10:30. New Hampshire lost to the defending national champions Notre Dame 11-1 on Friday. Notre Dame went into halftime with a 3-1 lead before racking up 8 goals in the second half. New Hampshire only recorded 1 shot in the game and they made it count. Meanwhile they allowed Notre Dame to take 30 shots. Julie Randall was in net for New Hampshire the full 90 minutes.