COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus College women's soccer team started fast and never looked back under the lights against Alvernia, snapping a four-game winless streak in grand style with a 4-0 rout on Tuesday night. Four different players found the back of the net for the Bears in their highest scoring effort of the season.
Senior Erin Farrell led the way with a goal and a career-high two assists, while senior Lauren Verso notched her first collegiate points with a pair of helpers for Ursinus (2-4-1), which needed just 92 seconds to get on the board. Verso latched onto a Crusader giveaway in the defensive zone and threaded a pass to Farrell at the far post, who easily beat the keeper for her team-leading fourth goal of the season.
Junior Phoebe Shoap doubled the spread in the 36th minute, the home side again capitalizing on a turnover by Alvernia (3-4). Farrell recovered the miscue and left a pass for Shoap, who used her left foot to curl in a beautiful shot from the left edge of the box and into the top right corner of the net for her second marker in as many games and third of the year.
The Bears struck quickly in the second half as well. After a give and go with Verso, junior Kendall Couch had her shot blocked at the top of the box, but stepped up immediately to blast her own rebound past Alvernia goalkeeper Jessica Plunkett, who had little time to react.
Senior Jeannie Jasinski appeared to have scored her first goal of the season on a perfect give-and-go with junior Katie Bell, only to have it called back for offside. Less than a minute later, Jasinski finally cashed in, dribbling across the top of the box before unloading a left-footed shot past a diving Plunkett and into the bottom right corner of the goal. The impressive effort made Jasinski only the fifth player in program history to reach 20 career goals and elevated her into sixth with 43 points.
Jasinski nearly made it a brace in the 76th minute, but her powerful shot rocketed off the crossbar. Plunkett made eight other saves for Alvernia.
Mostly unchallenged thanks to a 24-4 discrepancy in shots for Ursinus, senior goalkeeper Courtney Sullivan made the only two saves she needed to preserve the clean sheet, her first of the season. It marked the 11th career shutout for Sullivan, who moved into a tie with Erin Cantwell (1999-2001) for second on the program charts. Ashley Potter (2004-07) holds the record with 16.
The Bears, who shut out the Crusaders for the third straight season, resume Centennial Conference play at Franklin & Marshall on Saturday.
