INDIANAPOLIS – The No.7-ranked Marian women's soccer team had no troubles with the visiting Tigers of Olivet Nazarene, posting a solid 5-1 victory Saturday afternoon.
The Knights put on a shooting clinic at St. Vincent Field, posting a total of 19 shots on the day, 14 of them being on goal.
Delaney Taylor kicked things off for Marian, striking one to the keeper four minutes into play before Camryn Gietl would make an attempt on a header that would be just high. Olivet Nazarene would try to answer minutes later, firing a shot wide right to keep both teams searching for their first goal of the match. At the 20:15 mark, Jacelyn Smith put the Knights on the board by capitalizing off a penalty kick and giving the Knights the 1-0 lead.
With Smith's goal, the scoring frenzy began for the Knights as Naomi Walters went on to score the next two goals for Marian. The first goal for the 5-10 junior came from a nice by ball played by Allie Schlom, giving Walters the window to notch her first one in. Around five minutes later, Walters and Oleksak paired up to make a similar play to give the Knights the 3-0 lead going into halftime.
Olivet would be the first to strike in the second half, but came up short as the shot went wide. Walters came out after the break ready to continue her scoring habits, taking two more shot attempts in a span of four minutes. The Tigers answered after the shot attempts by the Knights, scoring their first goal of the match to cut the lead, 3-1.
After the Tiger goal, Oleksak tried to answer for the Knights, taking a shot, but would come up empty. At the 79:58 mark, Oleksak made her second assist of the match to Smith who would go on to score her second goal of the afternoon. With the 4-1 lead, the Knights never let up as Schlom decided to get in on the action, scoring her third goal of the season with six minutes remaining in the contest. Silvia Quezada would fire off one more shot in the last three minutes of play, but came up empty for her first goal of her career.
The Knights would go on to win the match 5-1 to move their record to 2-0-1 on the season. Noelle Rolfsen got her second win the of the season, making three saves on the day with four shots on goal.
Marian will be back in action September 3, as they travel to St. Louis to take on No. 3-ranked Central Methodist College.
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