In a gritty and close battle, Old Dominion women’s soccer overcame James Madison in the Townsbank Royal Rivalry game by a 1-0 score on Thursday night at the ODU Soccer Complex, awarding head coach Angie Hind her 100th career win at Old Dominion.
Both ODU and JMU came into this matchup after tying 1-1 against respective opponents App. State and Coastal Carolina in their Sun Belt Conference openers. Brooke Edwards had the lone goal for the Monarchs in the second half while Dolcie O’Connor tied the game for the Dukes in the 49th minute.
“I thought to a player we were so good tonight,” Hind said. “Such a great performance from us both defensively and on the ball.”
Old Dominion came out blazing to begin the night against its in-state rival. Katie Lutz had the first shot for the Monarchs two seconds into the sixth minute, and after a corner kick in the eighth minute, Ashlynn Kulha found the top corner with help from Yuliia Khrystiuk.
Down 1-0, JMU tried to regain its momentum, gaining a corner kick in the 20th minute, which would be the last one that the first half would see until ODU was awarded its own corner kick in the 44th minute, though neither school scored off of these opportunities.
The second half opened up with both sides of the field coming in hot as five fouls were called in the first 14 minutes. Old Dominion outshot James Madison 8-4, and the three corner kicks that occurred in the second half all belonged to the Monarchs.
Even though offsides was called on ODU in the 90th minute, allowing a shot from JMU’s Ginny Lackey, the Dukes were unable to respond and ultimately fell to the Monarchs on the road.
Old Dominion outshot James Madison 19-8, with six SOG to JMU’s four. The Monarchs also led in corners with five, though the Dukes suffered only eight fouls and had a game-high five saves. ODU’s record improves to 5-1-2 while JMU falls to 4-3-3.
Riley Mullen and Ashley Economopoulos led the way for the Monarchs with the most shots with three, though six Monarchs had one SOG to end the night. Goalkeeper Ellie Goodrich had four saves on the night, bringing her season total up to 12.
“I think we really dominated for long spells tonight against what is always a good JMU team,” Hind said. “We were aggressive to defend high and forced a lot of turnovers in their half. But when we had the ball, we showed great composure and barring some quality goalkeeping, I think it could have been a few more.”
Old Dominion hits the road for a weekend contest against Coastal Carolina on Sunday, Sep. 21 in Conway, S.C.. The Chants are 3-4-1 overall and are looking to bounce back after a 4-1 road loss to SBC opponent South Alabama.
