BROOKVILLE, NY- After a scoreless first half, the LIU Post women's soccer team exploded for four second-half goals en route to a 4-0 victory in their home opener over the Lions of Georgian Court University.

LIU Post improves to 2-0-1 overall while GCU evens at 1-1-0 on the season.

The Pioneers struggled to get anything going offensively in the first half, but senior goalkeeper Nicole Fierro (East Hampton, N.Y.) made several saves to keep the game knotted at zero.  In the sixteenth minute, Becky Witmer (jackson, NJ) lined a hard, low shot that forced Fierro to make a lunging dive to her right, then in the 26th minute, Witmer was denied again as she sent a shot towards the upper middle of the net, but Fierro made a leaping deflection to push the ball over the crossbar and keep the game scoreless.

The Pioneers had few scoring opportunities in the first half as the Lions outshot them by a 5-4 count, however, a good chance game with less than one minute remaining in the half as sophomore Lina Harle (Lund, Sweden) took a long shot from the left flank that was turned away by leaping Georgian GK Casey O'Connor (Toms River, NJ). 

In the second half, the offense began firing on all cylinders and junior midfielder Jeanine Ambrogi (Greenlawn, N.Y.) put the Pioneers on the board at 47:28 at she collected a loose ball at the top of the goal box and sent a hard, high shot just under the middle of the crossbar for a 1-0 lead.

The Pioneers continued their offensive efforts and pressured the GCU defense, and the pressure paid off as the hosts scored three goals in a two-minute span, beginning with Ambrogi sending a through ball from the right side to freshman forward Hanna Westerling (Alvadalen, Sweden).  Westerling lined a shot off a diving O'Connor inside the bottom right post for a 2-0 advantage at 68:01. 

Just 58 seconds later, LIU Post struck again as Susanne Vistnes (Randaberg, Norway) registered her first collegiate goal as she took a shot that was blocked by a GCU defender, but quickly collected the deflected ball and sent a shot into the lower right net for a 3-0 lead.

The Pioneers rounded out the two-minute hat trick as Vistnes scored again, taking a pass from Ambrogi and sending a shot into the bottom left for the fourth goal of the afternoon.

Fierro and the defense remained relatively untested for the remainder of the second half as the Pioneers controlled the shot differential, 7-0, and held an 11-5 advantage for the game.  GCU manufactured three corners on the afternoon compared to only one for the Pioneers, who were also whistled offsides four times.

Fierro made three saves to earn her first clean sheet of the season and improve to 2-0-1.  O'Connor stopped one shot in the loss. 

 

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