Troy Soccer Opens Spring With 3-1 Victory at Alabama State

Wednesday, February 17

Montgomery, Ala.

7 p.m.

Troy University

3-9-1, 2-9-1

Alabama State

0-1-0, 0-0-0

Troy

Alabama St.

Troy Soccer Opens Spring With 3-1 Victory at Alabama State

2/17/2021 9:37:00 PM | Soccer

Box Score Box Score (PDF)HC Ged O'Connor/Taytum Terrell

By: Troy Athletics Communications

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Troy soccer opened its spring season with a 3-1 victory over the Alabama State Hornets, Wednesday night at a soggy and cold ASU Soccer Complex.

In the victory, the Trojans (3-9-1) received a pair of goals from sophomore Taytum Terrell and a goal from Melissa Kuya-Strobel.

Earning her second start of the season, sophomore Gaby Cossette made a pair of saves earning her second career victory.

Kuya-Strobel got the night started for the Trojans finishing a beautiful run with a right-footed shot in the ninth minute.

Just a matter of seconds later, Kuya-Strobel again had a solid scoring chance, but her shot was saved by Alabama State (0-1) keeper Kierra Dahlgren.

Mississippi State transfer Chloe Luliano recorded her first career shot in the 21st minute, but her attempt was blocked by the Hornet defense.

In the final second of the 38th minute, the Trojans doubled their lead, when Terrell took a feed from freshman Matilda Jakobsson and deposited a shot into the left-side of the net.

After the break, the Trojans again found of the back of the net, when Sydney Babineaux found Erin Bloomfield about 20 yards from the goal.

Bloomfield sent a perfect cross to Terrell who scored her second goal of the night deep into the 58^th minute.

Three minutes later, the Hornets looked to answer the Trojan goal with one of their own on a one-v-one opportunity, but Cossette made a great diving save to preserve the clean sheet.

Alabama State did ultimately find the back of the Troy net in the 64^th minute, but the Trojans were able to hold off any other Hornet attempts.

Troy returns to action next Sunday (Feb. 28) at Mercer. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. Central.

HEAD COACH GED O'CONNOR:
"Tonight's win showed a lot of character. Getting back to game action under these conditions. Getting to play everyone and scoring three times was really good. It was a good team performance under difficult circumstances. I was however very disappointed in how we gave up their goal. We work on set pieces a lot in our training sessions and we don't give defensive set-piece goals. Unfortunately, we lost our mark. Not sure who it was, but we needed to be more physical and dominant in our box. That's something that we should pride ourselves on. It's disappointing to give up a goal like that after we've made it a point of emphasis in our training sessions. We've worked incredibly hard on those situations. If you look at the players who were out there it was a completely different team than we were in the fall. The girls have learned a great deal since last season and now. It's so nice to see the girls out there playing in the manner that they need to. They came off the pitch tonight with smiles because they won, but they also learned just what college soccer is about. Our training sessions have been very competitive and there are a lot of girls who have really stepped up their game. Right now our players are working hard to gain minutes which makes for a great competitive environment."

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:
• Troy improves to 13-0 all-time against Alabama State.
• The Trojans outshot ASU 12-6.
• Kuya-Strobel's goal tonight was her third of the season.
• Terrell recorded her first two goals of the season. The multi-goal game is her second career game with multiple goals.
• Danniane Arboleda made her first career appearance and start Wednesday night. The redshirt freshman missed all of last season and the fall with injuries.
• Luliano, Lisa Blankestein and Belerica Oquendo all made their Troy debuts. Luliano transferred from Mississippi State while Blakestein (Kentucky) and Oquendo (TCU) transferred in from Kentucky and TCU respectively.