Arkansas Finishes Weekend With Win Over MVSU
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.- The Razorback soccer team lit up the scoreboard early and often Sunday afternoon, defeating Mississippi Valley State, 11-0, at Razorback Field for its fourth win of the season. The 11 scores sets a program record for goals in a game and is the most since scoring nine in a game during the 1997 season.
Eight different players found the scoresheet against the Devilettes with Brooke Pirkle, Kayla McKeon, and Katie Kienstra finding the back of the net twice. In total, 13 Razorbacks recorded at least one point in the match as it was the highest scoring affair in Razorback Soccer history.
Prior to Sunday, Arkansas had scored nine goals in game three times in its history, the last coming against LSU in a 9-3 victory in 1997. The Razorbacks also totaled 43 shots in Sunday’s match with the Devilettes with 22 being on target. The 43 shots is also a single-game school record dating back to 1994.
“I think it was important this weekend to become more of a team,” Arkansas head coach Colby Hale said. “We used more players in both games this weekend and got more contribution from more players. We had different players step up and we’re growing.”
Both freshman Rachel Harris and redshirt junior Jordan Harris got time at goalkeeper on Sunday. Rachel Harris got the start, but was not challenged in the first half as Mississippi Valley State was limited to just one shot, which was not on goal. The victory was her third straight and upped her record to 3-2-0 for the year.
Jordan Harris played the entire second half and notched two saves of her own, one coming off a Devilette corner kick.
As for the rest of the team, Pirkle’s two goals coming in the 68th and 73rd minutes were the first of her career and she logged a season-high 62 minutes.
Pirkle wasn’t the only freshman to record their first points of their collegiate careers as Haley VanFossen, Caroline Campbell, and Ansley Bunger each recorded at least one assist. Bunger led the team with two assists, both coming on back-to-back goals from her corner kicks.
One week after scoring four times in the same game, freshman Parker Goins did a lot in her 25 minutes of play as she recorded the assist on both Taylor Malham’s goal (26th minute) and McKeon’s second goal (26th minute). For Goins, she now has 12 points, which continues to lead the team. All of her points have come in the last four matches and is still good for a tie for second in the SEC.
“We’ve got a bunch of new players and it felt like progress this week,” Hale said. “We’ve learned we have a lot of players that can do it. At the start of the year, we felt like we were trying to figure out who we are. One of our objectives this weekend was to become more of ‘us,’ and we felt like we did that.”
Quick Notes
-The 11 goals scored by the Razorbacks on Sunday was the most ever scored in a game in school history (9 vs. LSU in 1997).
-The 11-0 victory is the largest margin of victory in school history dating back to 1996 when the Razorbacks defeated Stephen F. Austin, 9-0.
-Arkansas took 43 shots against Mississippi Valley State, setting the program record for most shots in a single match.
-Freshman Brooke Pirkle, sophomore Kayla McKeon, and senior Katie Kienstra each scored two goals in the match. It’s the first multi-goal performance in Kienstra’s career and the third for McKeon.
-Freshman Ansley Bunger recorded assists on back-to-back goals in the second half, giving her two points for the match. Both of the goals came off Bunger’s corner kicks.
-Katie Kienstra finished the weekend with three goals on six shots combined against James Madison and Mississippi Valley State. The goal total already triples the number of goals she had coming into the 2017 season (1).
-Senior Jessi Hartzler scored for the first time in 2017 on Sunday when she scored off a rebound in the 17th minute. Hartzler is coming off an eight-goal season a year ago.
Up Next
Arkansas goes on the road for the second time this year as it heads to the Northeastern part of the country for a match in Storrs, Connecticut against UConn on Thursday. It will be the first time the Razorbacks has faced the Huskies and first kick is slated for 6 p.m.
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