“We worked for two hours yesterday just finishing in the box over and over and over again from all different angles and goals in all different forms, services in the air, goals rolled in on the ground,” head coach Sarah Strickland said. “I mean, we went over every scenario and got to the point where they were physically diving into the goal no matter what. And you saw Maggie's goal was her physically willing the ball into the net. She wasn't going to stop until she had that goal.”
Strickland continued, “That was an opportunity we had on Thursday that we didn't put away and we put those opportunities away today. But credit to the girls who were able to bounce back and create those opportunities again. It's not just finishing them, it's creating them as well. It becomes difficult and I think we played 29 girls so to get that many girls on the field and to have that many different faces be impactful was huge, I felt.”
Elon started off the game strong, catching the Mountaineers off guard in the first of three, 30-minute periods and one mock overtime period of 15 minutes. The Phoenix's Grace Bennett took a cross from Tori Baliatico on the left side of the field and knocked it in to go up 1-0 in the 5th minute of the game.
Appalachian was unable to respond in the first period, but once the second period got underway, it was all the Mountaineers.
In the 40th minute, sophomore Jessica Easley took a backward pass from junior Erin Settle to line up a straight away shot right past the goalie to tie up the game 1-1. But it wasn't until the 62nd minute that the Apps really laid it on. First, freshman Maggie Hanusek scored her first goal in the exhibitions as a Mountaineer off two touch passes from seniors Jackie Nieradka and Jane Cline. Then, just six minutes later, Nieradka again played the playmaker by finding Brie Bahlmann off a corner on a hard pass to give her the chance to score.
The final goal of the match came 77 seconds later when Bahlmann returned the favor to Nieradka, who, from the top of the circle, blasted it home.
Protecting the net for App State was junior Sam Steyl, sophomore Taylor Ray and freshman Heather Ostwalt. Steyl led the way in saves (two) and minutes with a full 60 of the total 105 minutes. Ray played 30 minutes on the day, while Ostwalt played the entire 15-minute overtime period.
Shooters Shoot
After failing to find the back of the net in the first exhibition match against Western Carolina despite having 21 shots, Appalachian State made a concerted effort on the day of training in between to put more of those shots on goal. The Mountaineers finished with 27 shots Saturday, 12 of which were on goal.
App State also showed its depth on the offensive attack, having 16 student-athletes put up a shot and six student-athletes putting up more than two shots.
Looking Forward
The Mountaineers will have six days to prepare for the regular season and home opener against Northern Kentucky on Friday, Aug. 19 at 4 p.m. They then travel to play Davidson on Sunday, Aug. 21 at 2 p.m.
