The Trinity Women’s soccer team had their home debut against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Sept. 10 and didn’t disappoint with an early goal in their narrow victory. It was just the Tiger’s fourth game of the season, but the implications were already huge. In this all-important Trinity game, it was the Trinity defense that wrote the story as the Tigers earned their second win of the season.
The Tigers opened their season with three straight road games. The season started strong with a huge 6-1 win over the University of Redlands. However, after trouncing the Redlands, the season took a turn for the worse as Trinity lost both of their next two games. Trinity lost to Pomona-Pitzer 2-1 on Sept. 3 and then 2-0 to Cal Lutheran on Sept. 8. These were the first two regular season losses since Oct. 24, 2021. Last year, the Tigers were undefeated SCAC champions, with their only eventual loss coming in the national tournament.
After a tough start to the season, the Tigers looked to right the ship in their first home appearance of the season. It was Claremont who had the first chance of the game. A corner kick created chaos for the Trinity backline, but Claremont came up empty-handed, which ended up being a theme for the game.
Just three minutes after Claremont nearly took the lead, Trinity managed to break through. Senior defender Kyra Stafford picked up a loose ball near the Claremont box and drove down to the backline before eventually playing a perfect pass to the back post. Waiting at the back post was senior forward Emily Hayes, who hit the ball cleanly out of the air with a strike that deserved a goal. However, the goal would have to wait as Claremont keeper Sadie Brown made a spectacular save. Unfortunately for Brown, her save landed the ball right back to Emily Hayes, who made sure that her great first shot wasn’t for nothing as she tapped home 14 minutes in.
Trinity held strong into halftime for the full ninety minutes, getting a well-earned shutout. Trinity’s goalkeeper Lauryn Lewis was crucial in the win, commanding the penalty box on crosses and coming up with an important save with just eight minutes left in the shutout. Across the board, it was a strong performance for the Trinity backline and midfield as they did what they had to do to hold onto the lead and get the full three points.
It hasn’t been the start to the season that the Tigers would have hoped for, or even expected, but a home win sets the record back at even with plenty of games left. Next week, the Trinity Tigers get back on the tour bus with two more road games at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, TX, and the University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson, TX. These two games are crucial to Trinity as they look to get their season back on track next weekend.
