Nicole Waters Earns First Career Victory in Troy's Season Opener

Friday, August 20

Troy, Ala.

7 p.m.

Troy University

1-0-0, 0-0-0

Nicholls State

0-1-0, 0-0-0

Nicholls

Troy

Nicole Waters Earns First Career Victory in Troy's Season Opener

8/20/2021 11:37:00 PM | Soccer

Box Score

By: Troy Athletics Communications

TROY, Ala. – The Nicole Waters era for Troy soccer opened in grand fashion Friday night as the Trojans earned a 1-0 victory over Nicholls State. The season opening victory was also the first career win for Head Coach Nicole Waters.

Erin Bloomfield provided the matches only goal of the night on a penalty kick while goalkeeper Gaby Cossette made two saves to earn her second career shutout. Troy's shutout was the programs third season-opening shutout victory in the last four seasons.

Troy (1-0-0) kicked off its 2021 campaign as the aggressor, forcing Nicholls State (0-1-0) to sit back on its heels for much of the opening frame. The Trojans dictated the pace of play with six shots on goal in the first half. Despite the multiple chances, Troy was unable to grab the early lead before heading into the locker room.

In the 68th minute of the second period Troy's aggressive play paid off as they drew a penalty inside the box to earn the penalty kick. Bloomfield's PK was spot on as she beat the keeper with a strike that found the top right corner of the net to break the 0-0 tie and give Troy the lead.

As they had all night, Troy never let up as they continued to get good looks with plenty of opportunities to score. Troy tallied a total of 17 shots while limiting Nicholls State to just seven.

Quoting Head Coach Nicole Waters
On her first career coaching victory
"I'm very happy and very excited. There were a lot of nerves, not just from me, but from the rest of the team. We are happy that we got the win but we also got the shutout which was really important to us too."

On what she told the team in the locker room after the early chances to score came up empty
"I just let them know that the nerves were there but we that we had practiced and worked on everything that we wanted to do in this game and to just think back to the things that we had trained the last two weeks. Just calm down, we were playing great but let's take a breath and do what we know how to do."

On Erin's game winner
"They were playing quite deep at points and we thought that Erin could come in and come off the back line and get the ball to her feet and create from there and she ended up doing that."

Trojan Notes
• Waters becomes the first head coach in program history to win their first career match and have it be against a Division I opponent. She is also just the fourth coach in program history to win their debut match at Troy
• Kate Eubanks extended her consecutive matches started streak to 42
• Nia Wilson and Melissa Kuya-Strobel combined for the team lead with four shots
• Troy had 14 corner kicks to Nicholls' five

Up Next
Troy will be back in action on Sunday when they host Alabama A&M to close out the 2021 Troy Tournament. Sunday's match is scheduled to kickoff at 1:30 p.m.

Follow TROY Soccer
Social: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Join The Conversation: #OneTROY | #OneMore