MOBILE, Ala. – Sophomore forward Laura Klebek corralled a loose ball and blistered a shot into the back of the net at 87:14 as the Old Dominion women’s soccer team knocked off South Alabama 1-0 in a key Sun Belt Conference clash on Friday night.
With the win, ODU (7-4-1, 2-1-1) scores the first victory in the series with South Alabama and snaps a six-match Jaguars unbeaten streak on a rainy night at The Cage. The teams played to a pair of draws in the 2022 season, the last one in the Sun Belt Tournament semifinals that ODU advanced on penalty kicks.
A foul drawn by Katie Lutz at 85:30 set up a free kick that was taken by Andrea Balcazar Algarin. After some passing around, the ball was ricocheted to the feet of Klebek who took one step in and found the back of the net for the lone tally in the contest.
“This was a great game of soccer tonight. Two good teams going back and forth. I think South Alabama are a quality side and have such a legacy of success, so to come here and get the three points is huge,” said ODU Head Coach Angie Hind.
The first half saw the Monarchs put three shots on board in the first six minutes, but both backlines were on point and kept things scoreless. ODU had a couple of chances in the first half though South Alabama (7-4-1, 2-1-1) goalie Allison Luckhardt stopped the Monarchs attempts.
ODU found another gear in the second half and continued to keep the pressure on the Jaguars finding four of their six corner kick chances in the final 45 minutes. The Monarchs had forced a free kick just inside midfield which set up Lutz to start the eventual scoring chance.
In the contest, ODU held a 14-8 advantage in shots, 5-1 in shots on goal, and 6-4 in corner kicks. ODU goalie Emily Bredek made one save in the second half for her second clean sheet of the season.
“The first half was back and forth, but I honestly felt we lifted it a level in the second half. We got much closer to them and when we had the ball played some great soccer at times. I felt we deserved the goal. A really fantastic team performance tonight and we had some players who really stepped up for us,” Hind added.
The Monarchs now start the Georgia portion of their Sun Belt Conference slate as they host Georgia Southern on Thursday at 2 p.m. They’ll follow that contest by heading to Atlanta to face Georgia State on October 13.