SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Dominican women's soccer shutout Menlo College 3-0 in its season opener Thursday afternoon at Kennelly Field.
Three Penguins (1-0) found the back of the net, while Dominican's defense silenced the Oaks (1-1), holding Menlo to just one shot on goal compared to Dominican's nine. Sophomore forward
Ana Herrera led Dominican with the first goal of the year in the 35th minute. With 1:33 left in the first half, Sophomore midfielder
Sofia Odron added to the Penguin lead with a goal of her own. In her college debut,
Victoria Avina found the back of the net for the third and final goal of the match.
Alyssa Ramos started for Dominican between the posts and recorded her 18th career shutout.
In the 24th minute of the match,
Katie Bianchi drew a foul just outside of the box that landed the Penguins an opportunity to break the tie.
Lexi Martinez took the free kick and placed it perfectly at the right post to
Kayla Kukaua who headed it towards the net, but the ball went wide.
Odron subbed in for
Yasmine Angel for the final 20 minutes of the first half and made an immediate impact. In the 31st minute Odron shook her defender at midfield, sprinted to the top of the box and snuck a ball in between traffic to
Alison McNeal. McNeal rolled a ball off her right foot to the far post, but was wide by inches.
In the 35th minute,
Kaitlyn Haub played a ball forward to Herrera up the middle of the field, who outran her defender and put one past the reaching hands of Menlo keeper Michelle Gonzalez for the 1-0 lead. With two minutes left in the half,
Aiden Marquez raced past her defender down the right sideline, and crossed it into the box where it took a deflection to the feet of Odron. Odron then sent the ball into an empty net to extend the Penguins' lead to 2-0 at the half.
Both teams started the second half slowly until Avina struck in the 62nd minute taking a ball down the left side before creating some space at the top of the box with some nice moves and then curling a ball perfectly around the near post and into the back of the net.
The Penguins will look to continue their strong performance Sunday as they take on St. Martin's University at 1:30 p.m. PDT. Live video and stats will be available online.
