ITTA BENA and LORMAN, Miss. l The Grambling State University Lady Tigers soccer team improved their overall and Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) rankings after winning their two games against Mississippi Valley State University and Alcorn State University, from a combined score of 11-1 to improve to 3-1 in conference play and 6-7-1 overall on the year. 

The first matchup was on Thursday night. Just before the 12th minute mark into the game, a shot was deflected down by a Mississippi Valley defender in the box resulting in a penalty kick opportunity for Grambling State. Sophomore Kaylie Pena's contribution gave the Tigers the 1-0 lead. Seven minutes later, redshirt freshman Sydney Devita swooped off a saved shot by Haylee O'Leary to increase the lead to 2-0. 

That score would hold until three minutes into the second half when the Devilettes got on the board to trim the lead in half. Fortunately for the Lady Tigers, they had the opportunity to build their cushion back up with a goal in the 64th minute by midfielder Sarah Teubner (who scored three goals over the weekend), and the final tally of the game coming in the 78th minute by Zenaya Barnes.

"After we had built a two-goal lead, we became a bit complacent with our play and MVSU to their credit battled back and scored and made it a tight game," said head coach Justin Wagar. "We had to rebound and adjust or we might not have come away with a victory."

In the second game of the week, Grambling State got on the board in the eighth minute with a nice finish from junior Sarah Teubner. The Lady Tigers never looked back, pouring in six more goals the rest of the way to finish the game with a 7-0 victory.

After Teubner's eighth minute goal, Kailey Pena scored in the 17th minute, followed by Teubner again in the 55th minute, and Macy Ramsey with her first collegiate goal at the 62nd minute. Zenaya Barnes got in the mix at the 74th minute, and Miranda Urbizu scored the final two coming at the 81st and 83rd minutes. 

The stat line that stuck out the most for Grambling State this week was a whopping 44 shots against Mississippi Valley and then 36 against Alcorn State while only allowing nine against. "We created scoring chances this week which is wonderful, but we've still got some work to do with putting our chances away early and often," added Wagar.

Grambling State only has one game this week against Howard University on Sunday, Oct. 13. The game will be at noon at the GSU Soccer Complex. Admission is free.

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