Clemson, S.C. – The Clemson women’s soccer team put up a dominant 4-1 performance over the Syracuse Orange to give the Tigers their ninth win of the season and their seventh win at Historic Riggs Field. Head Coach Eddie Radwanski and company move to 9-4-1 on the season and 3-4 in the conference after Saturday night’s game.
“I am proud of the effort, the mindset and the approach that our girls had for this game,” Radwanski spoke on the win. We treated Syracuse with a great amount of respect because we have always had difficult games with them, but I was excited to have a diversification with goal scorers – it shows that we aren’t just a one person type of team.
With steady rain on the radar, play remained slow through first quarter of action with possession heavily favoring the Tigers. Clemson was able to throw multiple shots on net early despite none of them being able to beat the keeper.
It wasn’t until the 32nd minute that Lauren Bruns fired a shot on net that was deflected back to the top of the box. Julie Mackin made a sliding pass out to the left corner which was immediately met by the foot of Renee Guion who slotted a shot to the top right corner for her first career goal. Guion’s goal moves her in a tie for the team lead for points with 12 after adding to her 10 assists on the year.
Shortly after checking into the match, freshman Abby Hanks made a statement with a goal coming off the long feed from Mackenzie Smith and a short pass from Bruns. Hanks was able to beat the keeper on the nearside to get her first goal as a Tiger and giving Clemson the 2-0 lead heading into halftime.
The Tigers continued to keep up the pressure in the second half as Kimber Haley got things started in the 60th minute. Mackin added her second assist of the evening after a long feed up to Haley was able to be ricocheted off the post to give Clemson the three goal advantage.
Three minutes after Haley’s goal, redshirt senior Patrice DiPasquale got her first of the year after a flurry of attackers gave a high ball which DiPasquale headed past the keeper.
Syracuse added a goal in the 89th minute off a cross in the box, however, the Tigers would hold on to the 4-1 lead until the final whistle, garnering their ninth victory of the season.
Clemson stayed strong on the backend all night, holding the Orange to four shots and grasping advantage of corners 10-1.
“We did a pretty good job taking care of the ball, “ Radwanski added. “I thought our backline did an amazing job at managing the game and managing possession. We did a great job holding the ball on their end of the field and maintaining the attacking mindset.”
After a brief pitstop at home, the Tigers hit the road once again as they head down to Coral Gables, Fla. to take on Miami in a 7 p.m. showdown on October 24th.
