TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The third-ranked Florida State women’s soccer team (1-0-0) won its season opener against Oregon State (0-1-0), 1-0, on Friday at the Seminole Soccer Complex. With the win, FSU has won six-straight season openers, moving to 16-2-1 all-time.
In addition, the victory Friday night marks the 19th-straight home win for the Seminoles dating back to the 2011 season, setting a new school record. The previous mark of 18 consecutive home victories was established back during the 2008 and 2009 seasons.
“It’s a great start for us,” said Florida State head coach Mark Krikorian. “I think everyone was looking at the quality of kids that graduated and wondering what the solution is, but we’ve been saying all preseason long that we like our group. We have the potential to be very good and again the quality of the soccer – the passing and moving and combination play was very good for our first game. Maybe the best total performance we’ve had since I’ve been here.”
After a 51-minute weather delay halted the match after just 15 minutes of play, the winning strike came from the foot of sophomore Nora Kervroedan (Maurepas, France) as she connected on FSU’s 12th shot of the game in the 43rd minute off a deflected shot from freshman Nickolette Driesse (Wayne, N.J.). Kervroedan’s one-time kick bent inside the right post from 25 yards, good for her third career score and second-consecutive on opening night.
“It felt great,” said Kervroedan on recording her second career game-winner. “It gives me a lot of confidence for the rest of the season.
“Nicole tried to take a shot on goal and it came back to me. I looked up and saw the goalkeeper was not covering the back post, so I just went for it.”
The Seminoles possessed the ball for a majority of the second half, racking up a total of 16 shots for the game.
In the 62nd minute, sophomore Carson Pickett (Fleming Island, Fla.) created a chance stealing the ball from a Beaver defender inside the box, but the Oregon State keeper Sammy Prudhomme was there for the save.
Oregon State looked to have a scoring opportunity in the 78th minute; however the play was swiftly defended and cleared by defender Kristin Grubka.
The Beavers were held in check by the Seminole defense all night long limited to just two shots and only one shot on goal. The lone shot on goal for Oregon State came in the 88th minute as Jenna Richardson tried from long range but Kelsey Wys (Coral Springs, Fla.) was there for the save.
“We have a very competitive group,” added Krikorian. “I thought we fought well and I was very pleased with our possession play. I thought we moved well without the ball; kept the ball and had a lot of good attacking opportunities tonight. A lot of people came out and contributed. It was also good solid defending all over the place.”
“We had an excellent game tonight both attacking and defending,” Kassey Kallman said. “The entire team played really well and that makes it easier on our backline. But I thought we did really well as a back four and with Kelsey (Wys). We were really organized, so that definitely helped us keep the shutout. Everyone did a super job defending tonight.”
In the first half, Florida State applied the offensive pressure early with Pickett striking first with a shot that ricocheted off the cross bar from 35 yards out in the third minute.
FSU found another chance in the eighth minute as sophomore Isabella Schmid (Wangen, Germany) ripped a shot from the right side that slammed off the post before bouncing out of bounds.
The Seminoles had two additional scoring looks in the first half, as Megan Campbell (Louth, Ireland) knocked a 30-yard blast off the crossbar before Driesse registered a shot from 35-yards that was deflected by the keeper before pulling the ball in for the save.
Florida State returns to the pitch on Sunday, August 25 when the Seminoles host Auburn at 1 p.m. inside the Seminole Soccer Complex. The game will also air on ESPN3, while gametracker and updates on twitter will be available throughout the match.
As always, Seminole fans can follow the Noles on twitter @FSU_Soccer and remember to like the Seminoles on Facebook (www.facebook.com/FSUSoccer).
