Megan Watts' Blast Lifts Women's Soccer To 1-0 Win Over App State

NORFOLK, Va. – Senior Megan Watts scored on a blast from just inside the 18-yard penalty box in the 55th minute as Old Dominion women's soccer shut out App State 1-0 on Friday night.
 
With the clean sheet, ODU (10-1-3, 5-1-1 Sun Belt) ran its unbeaten streak to five and remains in first place in the Sun Belt Conference East Division. It's also the ninth shutout of the season for Emily Bredek, who ties the single-season record for clean sheets with Kasey Perry from 2021 and Lauren Tupman from 2008.
 
"This was a big win against a good team tonight. We knew it would be difficult as App State are well coached and difficult to break down, but Megan scored a great goal," said ODU Head Coach Angie Hind. "In tight games like this you have to make the most of moments like these and we did just that."
 
ODU forced a turnover and a through ball ricocheted onto the feet of Watts who dribbled a couple times and ripped a rocket into the upper right corner of the net at 54:02 to put the Monarchs up 1-0. Her blast gives her 19 for her career and puts her alone in ninth place on the career goals scored list.
 
App State (6-5-3, 3-2-2) forced the action for fair parts of the first half forcing Bredek to make five saves in the opening 45 minutes. Stephanie Barbosa put a pair of shots on midway through the first half, one off a corner and one on a breakout, and both were denied.
 
In the second half, Bredek kept the Mountaineers out of the net with a couple key saves including tipping one just over the cross bar as App State made a charge.
 
On the night, each team had 11 shots and Bredek came out with a season high eight saves. Her previous high was six against VCU and Virginia Tech.
 
"They put us under a lot of pressure at the end and I thought our defensive unit and midfield were so strong," said Hind. "In goal, Emily came up big time at key moments and again that's what you need to win games like this at this stage in the season. We were resilient and worked so hard for each other tonight."
 
ODU now heads to San Marcos, Texas to face Texas State on Thursday night.