Although senior Alli Weiss has set numerous Lakeland records for her goalkeeping skills, there is one statistic she has never be credited with before: Scoring a goal. Weiss changed that today, knocking in not one but the last three goals of the game for the hat trick en route to a 10-0 shutout victory for the Muskies over Mount Mary College on Sunday.
"I've never scored a goal before," said Weiss, who hasn't played outside the goal posts since her freshman year. "I've always wanted to score a goal in my career and everyone was really nice and set me up. This is the last time I'll probably ever get to play in the field, so it was great to get a few goals."
Head coach Dave Madsen gave Weiss the opportunity to play a field position in order to provide cover for some injuries as well as to give sophomore Savanna Johnson some time in the net.
"I knew we were going to start Savanna in goal," Madsen said, "and since she had the opportunity to score a goal last week I thought it would only be fair to give Alli a chance to score. I think it really helped our team focus since the girls were really looking to get her the ball. I was happy to see her get the chance to score."
Although the Muskies were looking to work on ball movement for the game, they were still a constant harassment to Mount Mary's back line, launching 22 shot attempts for the game to their opponent's zero.
Senior Ann Lehecka joined Weiss at hat trick status, scoring all three of her goals in the first half, while freshman Celine Elzinga also scored twice. Senior Nellie Weiss continued to lead the Muskies in scoring on the season, knocking in a cross from her sister, freshman Gina Weiss, in the 20th minute of play. Newly-added freshman Sonja Barone rounded out the scoring for the team with the first goal of her career off a Lehecka cross in the first half.
"The girls knew we wanted to expand on some of our skills and challenged themselves to work on that during the game," said Madsen. "I was happy with the way they were scoring goals. Offensively we worked on spreading the field and keeping the ball moving, which we did a really good job on and got everyone involved. We also stayed focused on getting the shutout, which was good to see since sometimes that can be tough."
After a hard-fought game on Saturday against Wisconsin Lutheran that resulted in a 1-1 tie after two overtimes, today's win provides the Muskies with some breathing room before taking on Milwaukee School of Engineering on Wednesday, September 20, in non-conference action in Milwaukee, Wis.
"Coming off the tie yesterday we needed to get our confidence back," said Weiss. "This will get us going for our next game."
Madsen echoed Weiss' comments in terms of the victory's impact on team morale.
"Coming from yesterday's tough game this was a big confidence booster, which will help us on Wednesday," he said.
Game time vs. MSOE is set for 7 p.m.
