AIKEN, S.C. – Lauren Wade (Coleraine, Northern Ireland) tied the season-high for goals in a game in the NCAA and set the season-high in Division II by scoring five times to spearhead a 9-0 thrashing of USC-Aiken by the No. 10 Carson-Newman women's soccer team on Monday afternoon.
This victory puts the team at 4-1 this season just as conference play begins. USC-Aiken drops to 2-4.
"We've played some really good soccer," Coach Richard Moodie said. "We woke up after the loss to Alabama-Huntsville. No disrespect to them, but we shot 15 times and only scored once. We shot 18 times and scored 9 goals today."
Wade's five goals in a game have only been matched this season by two players in Division III, Georgia Straka of Nebraska-Wesleyan and Lindsey Keith from Becker. She also added two assists, giving her 12 points, the most by a player in the NCAA this season across all three divisions. No C-N player has scored five goals or had 12 points in a match since Liz Jallo racked up seven scores in a 2002 game against Converse. This performance also gives Wade 10 goals on the season, tied with two other players for the most in Division II. She also now leads the NCAA in points with 26. After her two goal, three assist performance on Saturday against Francis Marion, Wade has 19 points in her last two matches.
"I'm not surprised that Lauren is standing out," Moodie said. "She looks like she's going to be one of the top players in the conference this year."
Wade put the Eagles in front in the 10th minute when she scored her first goal off an assist from Holly Talbut-Smith (Crawley, England) and added her second exactly 100 seconds later, this time with help from Julianne Herrity (Donegal, Ireland), making the score 2-0 in the 12th minute.
In the 24th minute, Talbut-Smith increased the lead to 3-0 with her fourth goal of 2016 and Varin Ness (Sogndal, Norway) was credited with her fourth assist. That score stood at the half.
Wade secured a hat trick in the 56th minute, taking a cross from the left side by Chelsea Jordan (Knoxville, Tenn.) and beating the goalkeeper with a shot from inside the 18-yard box. Herrity upped the Eagles' lead to 5-0 in the 59th minute when she received a pass from Wade and fired it into the net for her seventh goal of 2016.
In the 69th minute, Wade's fourth tally increased the lead to 6-0 and she found twine again in the 75th minute, with an assist to Nora Logan (Charlotte, N.C.), to put her squad up by a touchdown. She wasn't finished however, as just three minutes later, she assisted on Hannah Henry's (Signal Mountain, Tenn.) first career goal by booting a free kick into the scoring area, which Henry finished with a header. That assist complete the most prolific day by a Carson-Newman women's soccer player in 14 years.
The Eagles completed the scoring in the 79th minute when Gabrielle Gianeselli (Knoxville, Tenn.) tacked on her second score in as many games, putting her team ahead 9-0.
"We did a lot of rotating this weekend and we were still scoring goals," Moodie said. "We took players out and put new players in and were still able to produce offensively. You look at Gabby, she scored in both games. The way we are playing right now is really more important than the result."
Almost overshadowed by another spectacular offensive performance was the play of Carson-Newman's defense. The fullbacks and goalkeeper Jacqueline Burns (Cookstown, Northern Ireland) combined to secure a second consecutive clean sheet and the third overall this year.
This victory comes just two days after a 10-0 destruction of Francis Marion. The total of 19 goals in two games and the combined margin of victory over the last two matches are the largest for the program since they defeated Emory & Henry and Anderson (S.C.) 12-0 and 10-0 in consecutive contests in 1997.
The Eagles head to Newberry for their first SAC game of 2016 on Saturday, when they play the Wolves at 1pm.
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