East Carolina University
Houston
East Carolina Soccer Cruises Past Houston, 3-1
October 31, 2014 | Soccer
MEMPHIS - Senior Brianna Spitler, junior Kendall Frey and sophomore Lana Spitler each scored a goal, as the East Carolina women's soccer team defeated Houston, 3-1, Friday afternoon in the first round of the 2014 American Athletic Conference Championship at the University of Memphis.
The No. 7 seed in the tournament, East Carolina (11-7-1) advances to Sunday's quarterfinal round to face host and No. 2 seed Memphis (8-5-4) at 3 p.m.
"The team played a great game today," head coach Rob Donnenwirth said. "It was great to see us take what we did in training during the week and bring it to the game, but now our focus is on Memphis and we will prepare tomorrow."
The Pirates fortified its defense and midfield in the early going in a battle for control, allowing just one Houston (1-10-5) shot and forcing an offside call in the first 10 minutes of action. ECU began to push forward, when Lana Spitler took the first shot on goal of the match just over 13 minutes in, but it was saved by the Cougars' goalkeeper Kaitlin Sterner.
In the 21st minute, senior defender Kelly Miller made a run up the left side before touching a cross that veered out of Sterner's reach, as Brianna Spitler was waiting on the opposite side to tap in her second goal of the season and give East Carolina a 1-0 lead.
The ensuing 20-plus minutes of the match went with little action and clean play, as both sides began substituting fresh legs into the game, but the Pirates struck again with just over 100 seconds remaining in the first half when Frey collected a pass from senior Brett Thomas, rounded a charging goalkeeper and fired home her sixth goal of the season to increase the advantage to 2-0.
Frey's tally was the 14th of her career, while her six goals match her total from the 2013 campaign. Thomas' assist was her second of the year and first since setting up the game-winning goal in the 2-0 victory at George Mason on Oct. 29.
After taking the 2-0 lead into the intermission, ECU did not take its foot off the gas to start the second half, and continued to apply pressure on Houston's back line. Lana Spitler made a run through several Cougars just under three-and-a-half minutes into the period before hitting a shot out of the reach of Sterner and into the back of the net to increase her team-leading goal total to eight for the season and extended East Carolina's lead to 3-0.
The Pirates removed starting goalkeeper Erika Lenns from between the posts in the 71st minute, as redshirt junior Saundra Baron entered the match in her first appearance since Sept. 19 at UNC Wilmington. Baron missed more than nine matches due to a knee injury.
East Carolina slightly suppressed its offensive initiatives and turned its focus to possession and clock management, but it took Houston more than 20 minutes to take advantage of any opportunities when Vanessa Almaguer touched a cross from Selena Peters into the bottom right corner to break up the shutout just one second before the 76-minute mark.
ECU made a series of substitutions for some fresh legs off the bench to hang on to the two-goal lead, as the Cougars put two more shots on goal that were stopped by Baron, and earned a pair of corner kicks over the course of the final five minutes, but were unable to draw any closer as the Pirates held on for the victory.
Houston outshot East Carolina, 9-7, overall and held a 3-1 advantage in corner kick chances. Lenns didn't have to make a save and allowed no goals in nearly 71 minutes of action to earn her sixth win of the season, while Baron made three saves in her 19-plus minute of field time.
