Soccer downs Oral Roberts 3-0

TULSA, Okla. – The University of Arkansas soccer team defeated Oral Roberts, 3-0, Sunday at the ORU Soccer Complex. The Razorbacks got goals from Kelsey Allison, Laurel Pastor and Tara Zika, each scoring their first goals at Arkansas. Freshman Allie Chandler also posted a two-assist performance. With the win, the Razorbacks improve to 4-0-1, the best five-match start in program history."I’m really ecstatic (about today’s performance)," head coach Erin Aubry said. "One of the things we’d talked about after Thursday is that we weren’t playing our fun, creative soccer, and a lot of that involves attacking but it also involves defending in numbers. We had a great attack today and defended in numbers, so I’m really pleased with our performance."In the second half, the Razorbacks took a two-goal advantage when Chandler found a streaking Pastor out in front of the ORU goal. Building from the midfield, Chandler controlled the ball up the sideline and beat a Golden Eagle defender around the corner to center the pass to Pastor who knocked it in at the 52:49 mark for her first goal as a Razorback.Continuing a season pattern, Arkansas outshot its opponent, 17-6. The Razorbacks have outshot their opponent in each match this season, totaling an 83-34 advantage through five matches.Arkansas tacked on its third goal at the 63:54 mark with a Zika header. Pastor outran an ORU defender to a ball played from the center line. After clearing the opposition, the junior forward crossed the ball high to the far side of the keeper box and Zika elevated to head into the back of the net.Allison put the Razorbacks on the board at the 9:12 mark with her first goal of the season, an eight-yard shot past ORU goalkeeper Amanda Wheeler. Lauren Hallauer, down from her defender position, knocked a ball into the box, and after the ball wasn’t cleared, Chandler passed the ball over to Allison for the score.The goal helped switch momentum as the Golden Eagles were able to keep the ball on their end of the field in the minutes prior to the score. ORU applied some early pressure and earned two corner kicks within minutes of each other. On the second, the Golden Eagles’ Lauren Park made good contact with a header toward the goal but Britni Williams was there for the stop. The Razorback keeper finished the match with three saves.The Razorbacks nearly put a dent in the scoreboard early in the first half when Kim Schleif fired a shot from 25 yards out that rang off the crossbar just 90 seconds into the match. The putback attempt by Chelsea Tidwell, making her first start of the season, was high.

Arkansas returns home for its next match, a Sept. 13 meeting against Stephen F. Austin. The contest is scheduled for a 1 p.m. start at Razorback Field. It will be the first match between Arkansas and SFA since the 1996 season. For more information, log on to ArkansasRazorbacks.com.

Download: 09.06 vs ORU.pdf