Valiree Morris reentered the game and gave the Tulsa women’s soccer team a spark that led TU to a 2-0 win over UConn on Sunday afternoon at the Hurricane Soccer and Track Stadium.  The Golden Hurricane moved to 8-6 on the season and 2-2 in American Athletic Conference play, while the Huskies fell to 4-7-1 overall and 0-4 in the league.

 

This was TU’s first weekend sweep of league opponents since topping Cincinnati (2-0) and ECU (2-1) at home in 2016. 

 

“It was a grind,” Head Coach Kyle Cussen said.  “We talk about it almost every week about how tough this conference is and the parity of the league.  I thought we played really well in the first half against the wind, we created a couple of really good chances, including a penalty kick, but their goalkeeper made a great save.  I thought going in at halftime 0-0 we were a bit unfortunate.  In the second half, we came out and had the wind, but we weren’t as focused early on.”

 

The first 72 minutes ticked off the clock scoreless, but Morris crossed the ball into the box to Reagan Whitlow who drilled the ball into the lower right corner from 14 yards out at the 72:17 mark.  Morris then created her own opportunity to score in the 79^thminute as she shot from 25 yards out and put the ball into the back of the net.

 

“We subbed Val on and she made an immediate impact in the game.  I think she was on for 30 seconds before she played the ball to Reagan, and then Reagan had a great finish, and then six minutes later she scored herself.”

 

Morris and Whitlow had a team-best three shots, while Mia Darden had two attempts, and Kayla Fernandez, Grayson Schimmels and Anna Williams all took one shot.  Mica MacKay logged all 90 minutes in goal and picked up six saves.  

 

UConn had a 16-11 lead in shots, but TU had an 8-7 edge in shots on goal, and both teams had four corner kicks.

 

Tulsa will return to action on Thursday, October 10 against ECU. Game time is set for 6:00 pm in Greenville, N.C.

 

Scoring Summary

Tulsa       0               2               -                 2

UConn   0               0               -                 0

 

Individual Scoring

Reagan Whitlow (Tulsa) at 72:17 (Valiree Morris)

Valiree Morris (Tulsa) at 78:21 (unassisted)

 

Goalkeeper Saves

Mica MacKay (Tulsa) – 6

Randi Palacios (UConn) – 4

 

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