MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Saint Anselm women's soccer team entertained a pulsing Homecoming crowd at Melucci Field Saturday morning with a dominating 3-1 victory over Northeast-10 Conference rival Pace University.
"I thought we made good decisions with the ball in the midfield, which allowed us to create scoring opportunities," head coach Tony Wallis said. "We had some nice flair to our game in the final third as well."
Junior Rachel Gillies (Auburn, Mass.), senior Meredith Martin (Victor, N.Y.) and freshman Alexis Elowitch (Portland, Maine) all recorded goals in the victory, while junior Callie Millet (Lancaster, Mass.) recorded a pair of assists for a statistically high-scoring day.
In the fifth minute, Millet worked the ball in the short right six and played it out to Gillies, who started the offensive outburst with a deep fading crack into the top left corner netting.
After the Setters equalized 10 minutes later on a perfect header off a free kick, Saint Anselm's senior captain Martin redirected a Pace goalkeeper clear near midfield to find a streaking Elowitch to jump out to a 2-1 lead in the 27th minute. The goal was the
Martin then got into the scoring books herself, netting a blast from the top of the box just over one minute into the second half on Millet's second assist of the game.
"That first goal was a very clever interplay between Callie and Rachel," Wallis said. "And I love the fact we got Meredith her first goal and assist of her career today. It was probably one of our best 'team' games in the past few years."
Saint Anselm (4-1-1, 2-1-1 NE-10) truly dictated tempo and pace throughout the game, outshooting the Setters 24-4 for the game. Both Hawk goalkeepers shared a half, with sophomore Cassie Quattropani (East Hartford, Conn.) and senior Gabriela Primera (Kennett Square, Pa.) teaming up for three saves.
The Hawks will kick off a three-game road trip Tuesday, traveling to Saint Michael's for another important NE-10 matchup. Saint Anselm returns to Melucci Field Saturday, October 11 for a 2 p.m. matchup against nationally-ranked Saint Rose.
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