Erin O. Smith Georgia midfielder Gabby Seiler (19) kicks the ball downfield during the Georgia vs. Houston women’s soccer game on Friday, September 5, 2014, in Athens, Ga. Georgia won 4-0. (Photo by Erin O. Smith, eosmit8@uga.edu)
For the first time this season, the Georgia women’s soccer team scored more than three goals, the first of which will enter the program’s record book, in a 4-0 victory over Houston Friday night.
Sophomore midfielder Gabby Seiler kicked in her fifth goal of the season, extending her scoring streak to five games — the longest in Georgia history. Ironically, Seiler took a pass from the previous record holder, sophomore midfielder Marion Crowder (four games), en route to the score.
“I honestly don’t even think I knew [about the record at the time],” Seiler said. “It was a great ball by Marion — I wouldn’t have scored that goal without Marion…I’m humbled by it, but I’m also so thankful that I have people who get me the ball.”
Seiler’s goal was Georgia’s (2-1-1, 0-0-1 Southeastern Conference) first of the night, and came at the 26-minute mark. Since the Bulldogs held the Cougars (1-1-1) scoreless, it was recorded as a game-winner, Seiler’s second this year.
Georgia head coach Steve Holeman said Seiler has always been a good player, but now she is becoming more well-rounded.
“Gabby’s a team player,” Holeman said. “She creates so many chances for her teammates, and now she’s being productive in front of goal. That was one of her areas of focus in the off season, and now it’s all coming to fruition.”
After Seiler’s record-breaker, three Bulldogs scored their first career goals.
Sophomore forward Lauren Tanner scored later in the first half, and then Kelsey Killean and Taylor Donohue put the Cougars away in the second half.
Tanner said afterwards that her confidence has been building, and something finally clicked on her scoring play.
“I’ve been coming in every now and then, like in the games and stuff this season, and I feel like every time I’ve come in, I just keep getting more and more confidence, and tonight I just kind of felt it a little bit,” Tanner said.
Holeman said those scores were a testament to his team’s depth.
“We were able to rotate a lot of players in tonight,” he said. “On a Friday night that’s extremely important when you have a game on Sunday, so it’s nice to get what we felt like was a comfortable lead and rotate players in. It just shows the depth that we have when three players can step up and finish chances.”
The 4-0 shutout is an improvement for the Bulldogs, who were coming off a road trip to California that saw them lose one of two games and surrender three goals.
“We felt like we needed to be better in our possession, better with our entry passes from our backs into our midfield, be more productive in front of goal, and I think we accomplished that tonight,” Holeman said.
Overall, the game was Georgia’s most dominant performance of the season.
Houston had only allowed 27 shots and zero goals to their previous two opponents combined, but the Bulldogs’ four goals came off 28 shot attempts.
Georgia was even better defensively, holding the Cougars to just two shot attempts the entire game.
“I think a big part of that was just our ability to keep the ball,” Holeman said. “We had most of the possession…In the times where we turned it over, we were able to win it quickly back from them and limit their chances.”
There isn’t much time for rest, though, as the Bulldogs will welcome the Central Florida Knights on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.
Holeman said there is work to be done in preparation for that match-up despite the convincing win Friday.
“It’s easy to see the scoreboard and think we played a great game, but there’s a lot of things where we need to become better,” he said. “We’ll talk about what UCF does and their system and how we want to play and be better against them.”http://www.redandblack.com/sports/gabby-seiler-sets-georgia-record-in-soccer-team-s-/article_319bb422-3591-11e4-a123-001a4bcf6878.html
