Women’s soccer blanks St. Olaf, stays undefeated

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Brie Bourdage netted the lone goal for the St. Thomas women’s soccer team in the 67th minute to defeat St. Olaf 1-0 Wednesday in St. Paul.

Bourdage scored on a three person passing play along with Mary Ennis and Mallory DeBoom. A St. Olaf defender deflected Ennis’ pass but Bourdage was able to regain control and put the ball in the back of the net.

St. Thomas coach Sheila McGill said the goal was scored on a play the Tommies had been practicing.

“It is what we worked on,” McGill said. “It wasn’t necessarily pretty, but it worked.”

Apart from Bourdage’s goal, the Tommies (9-0-1 overall, 4-0-1 MIAC) and the Oles (6-4-1 overall, 3-3-0 MIAC) each played strong defense.

The Tommie defense was led by goalkeeper Tarynn Theilig who made eight saves and recorded her eighth shutout of the season.

There were not many scoring chances by either team apart from the Tommie goal but St. Olaf made an effort to tie the match in the final minutes, failing to convert on corner and free kicks.

The Oles best chance came with about a minute to go in the match when Theilig’s goal kick was quickly intercepted and shot by a St. Olaf player. It looked as if the shot was going in the net but Theilig jumped and tipped the ball over the crossbar.

“Tarynn knows she made a mistake in the first place and that’s why she had to make the save,” McGill said. “She came up big and covered her own mistake so I think we can give her a bit of a resolve.”

While she is happy with the win, McGill would like her team to finish better and not have the tense moments like the final minutes.

“We have to learn how to kill a game more than just sitting back and defending,” McGill said. “We need to play more in the opponent’s half of the field in the last twenty minutes.”

The Tommies’ next game is 7 p.m. Saturday at Macalester.

Taylor Smith can be reached at smit9660@stthomas.edu.