Sept. 23, 2007

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Columbia, Mo. - The 20th-ranked University of Missouri women's soccer team (6-2-0, 0-0-0 Big 12) defeated Texas Christian University (3-5-0, 0-0-0 Mountain West Conference), 6-2, Sunday afternoon at Walton Stadium. Highlighting the action, Tiger freshman forward Katya Hessel scored the first two goals of the game, the first two of her Tiger career. Junior defender Kat Tarr also scored the first of her career, on a penalty kick in the second half. Sophomore forwards Michelle Collins and Kristin Andrighetto each scored their seventh on the year and freshman forward Alysha Bonnick added one, giving her six for the season.

"Well again I didn't know how the game would progress. I didn't know if we would have an emotional hangover from Thursday and Friday's events, but again I think we showed a lot of maturity dealing with human and life adversity, and even soccer adversity," Tiger Head Coach Bryan Blitz said. "From a soccer standpoint in the past we might have panicked when the score was, 3-2, but we didn't show any panic. We just got back our focus and so that was a very good growing step for us as well."

The Tigers got on the board early Sunday, scoring in the second minute, 1:31 into the game. Andrighetto centered a beautiful ball to Hessel, who was standing to the left of the net. She hit it to the left post for her first career goal.

The goal made the score 1-0, but the Tigers, and Hessel, were not done scoring.

Just before halftime, in the 44th minute, Hessel scored again, off a free kick by goalkeeper Mallory Forst. Forst kicked the ball from about midfield, and Hessel took it and put it into the lower corner of the net to give Mizzou a 2-0 lead going into halftime.

Going into the game, the Tigers had outscored their opponents, 14-3. Sunday they would add to those numbers, scoring four times in the second frame.

In the 55th minute, Bonnick scored her third goal of the weekend, and sixth of the year, when Andrighetto passed it to the freshman forward who was about 10 yards out. Bonnick shot it off a TCU player, and it found the back of the net, giving the Tigers a 3-0 lead.

But TCU would fight back, scoring two goals less than six minutes after Bonnick's. In the 59th minute, TCU's Cheryl Martin passed it ahead to forward Jackie Torda, who scored her fifth goal of the year.

Just more than a minute after their first goal, TCU got on the board again. This goal was not as crisp as the previous one, but it still counted. TCU midfielder Courtney Johnson took the first shot of the sequence, and it was saved by Forst. But Forst could not secure the rebound. Torda got to the loose ball and shot it off the post. Midfielder Angie Nickens gathered that rebound and put it past Forst, bringing the Horned Frogs to within one goal, at 3-2.

"Hats off to TCU," Blitz said. "They made it a game, they really pushed us against the wall. But again, I am happy with how our kids dealt with all types of adversity this weekend."

The Tigers would score three more goals to seal their sixth victory of the year. In the 67th minute, Mizzou scored a goal that resembled the way TCU scored their last one. Ashley Hamblin took the first shot, which was saved by TCU goalkeeper Kelsey Vross. Hessel gathered the loose ball and shot it towards the goal, it was blocked. Collins then gathered that loose ball and shot it off Vross. Vross stopped it but could not control it, and Collins took a couple steps to her left and put it in, giving the Tigers a, 4-2, lead. That was Collins' seventh goal of the season, which was good enough for the team lead until Andrighetto scored about 20 minutes later.

Before Andrighetto's goal, Tarr put a penalty kick to the right of Vross for the first goal of her career. Tarr's goal increased the Tiger lead to, 5-2.

Andrighetto added one more goal, her sixth, with 40 seconds left in the game, to keep pace with Collins for the team lead.

Up Next:

The Tigers will host fourth-ranked Texas A&M next Friday (Sept. 28) in both schools' Big 12 opener. Assuming A&M stays where they are in the rankings, they will be the highest-ranked team to come into Walton Stadium since Oct. 12, 2003, when the fourth-ranked Aggies came into Walton Stadium. The un-ranked Tigers defeated Texas A&M, 5-4, in overtime. The Tigers hosted then-No. 3 Nebraska on Sept. 29, 2000.

NOTES:

Shots: MU:32 TCU: 10

Bonnick earned seven points on the weekend, the highest output by a Tiger freshman in two consecutive games since 2002 when Jennifer Nobis scored three goals and added two assists (eight points) in Mizzou's wins over Iowa State (Oct. 18, 2002) and Loyola (IL) on Oct. 20, 2002.

Bonnick's goal, which made the score, 3-0, was her fourth game-winning goal of the season. The only two other tiger freshmen to do that for an entire year were Adriene Davis and Melissa Peabody. The season high is six, by Amber Swinehart and Nikki Thole.

Bonnick has 16 points, that is the highest point total for a freshman since Jennifer Nobis accumulated 19 points and Amber Swineheart earned 15 in 2002.

Andrighetto now has 19 points on the season (7 goals, 5 assists) She had 13 all of last season.

Collins has 17 (7 goals, 3 assists)

Last year's team leader in points: Hamblin, who had 15 in an injury-shortened nine-game season

Thornton sat out Sunday's game due to an injury she suffered in Friday's game against Cal. Her status for next week's games is unknown.

Dittamore also missed the game due to the injury she suffered against Stanford last Friday (Sept. 14)