(Dover, Del.) – Tuesday evening, the Delaware State women’s soccer team (1-12) secured not only its first win of the season with 1-0 victory at home over former Great West Conference foe South Carolina State (6-8-1), but the first for head coach Kerri Scroope.

“It feels fantastic,” she said of her first victory. “It wasn’t easy for us, but I’ll take it.”

In the first period, neither squad got on the board as the match remained scoreless at halftime.  Although, DSU appeared to score when defender Morgan Durham fired a shot deep within SCSU territory, but it was waved off due to an offside’s call.

Defensively, despite the Bulldogs owning the shot-count, 5-1, DSU’s Katelyn Koslosky (1-12) tallied five saves, while SCSU’s Haley Austin (6-8-1) recorded one stop.

After intermission, during the 56th minute, the Hornets caught a break when midfielder Kaitlyn Schech was fouled inside of SCSU’s goalie box, resulting in a penalty kick.  Nevertheless, Schech was unable to capitalize as her attempt was saved by Austin.

As the stanza continued, the contest grew quite physical as both squads were battling furiously to come away with a victory.  Playing with an aggressive nature, forward Chelsea Boursiquot picked up a yellow card during the 81st minute.

However, Boursiquot bounced back about five minutes later when she found herself on the right wing in SCSU territory after a pass from midfielder Kelly Pelz-Butler (1).  After controlling the ball, Boursiquot (2) beat Austin to score her second goal in back-to-back games.

“Tonight we played with a lot of heart and I feel as though we weren’t going to give up,” stated Boursiquot.     

Now leading 1-0, the Hornets were forced with a tough task at hand to keep the Bulldogs scoreless the rest of the way.  Coming into tonight’s contest, South Carolina State had scored 20 goals on the season with 10 players tallying at least one.

Nonetheless, DSU kept the Bulldogs at bay to hold on and secure its first victory of the season. 

Finishing the match with a game-high five saves, Koslosky was extremely happy after her fifth career shutout.

“I’m so glad everyone was so calm, cool and collective, and we just played our game that we knew we had in us all a long.”

When the final buzzer sounded, the Hornets picked up the victory despite the Bulldogs recording five shots, compared to DSU’s four.  

Coming up, the Red & Columbia Blue will be back in action next Tuesday (7 p.m.) at home for Senior Night against the Howard Bison.  Last week, DSU fell 2-1 at Howard.    

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