The women’s soccer team busted out of their slump in a big way this week, winning both their match ups, beating Brescia University at home 4-0 on Thursday, Sept. 16, and Oakland City University 1-0 on Saturday, Sept. 18. The wins raise the Pioneers to 2-5 on the season.

The first game of the week, a Thursday match up on their secondary home of Coraopolis Sporting Complex Field, was an offensive explosion for the Pioneers, but the goals didn’t start coming till the second half. The game stayed at 0-0 throughout the first 45 minutes, but the Pioneers were firing shot after shot at the Brescia keeper.

Point Park would shoot 14 shots, with seven landing on net, compared to the Bearcats’ one shot that also landed on net. The second half is where the goals started coming, with senior forward Amy Packard scoring first for the Pioneers in the 57th minute of the match to break the deadlock. Five minutes later in the 62nd minute, senior forward Nola Mcguire would make an instant impact after being subbed into the game 14 seconds earlier by scoring the second goal of the game. Another eight minutes later, at the 70th minute, senior Kelsee McHugh would knock in the third goal of the game to put the Pioneers up 3-0. Three minutes later, the Pioneers would score their final goal in the 73rd minute of the contest with a goal off the foot of senior Brooke Doran.

The Pioneers would end the contest with an outstanding 26 shots in the game, with 14 shots landing on net, compared to the Bearcats’ 2 shots, with both landing on net but were saved. Sophomore Ella Serlin got the start in net for the Pioneers, getting the shut out and the win while saving the two shots she faced.

“We collectively decided that the start of conference play would be the time to turn things around,” Serlin said. “We are working harder than ever at practice, and the results are reflected in our last two games.”

Game two for the Pioneers was a much closer game, with Point Park squeaking out a 1-0 win off the Oakland City Mighty Oaks on Saturday at the Coraopolis complex again. The game was a much closer contest in comparison to a few days before, with the only goal of the game coming less than a minute before half time.

In the 44th minute, sophomore defender Cara Spry fired a shot from about 30 yards out that nailed the right corner to put the Pioneers ahead. Point Park would also take all of their shots in the first half, firing off 6 shots in the first half with 4 landing on net. The second half was a bit more hard on the Pioneers, with the Mighty Oaks firing off 7 shots in the second half. Serlin would come up big again for the Pioneers, saving all 8 shots in the game that landed on net for her second shutout of the season in as many games.
“The defense has played a really strong game thus far,” Serlin said. “It makes it easy to do my job when they are doing theirs so well.”

The Pioneers now stand at 2-5 on the season, and now have a 2-1 River State Conference (RSC) record half way through September. The Pioneers will look to ride the momentum heading into a home match up on Wednesday, Sept. 22 at Highmark Stadium against Washington Adventist University. The team will then play another home match on Saturday, Sept. 25, against Carlow University. Both games are RSC rivalry matchups, and both games are streamable through the Point Park University sports website.