Huntingdon women’s soccer shuts out Spelman on Senior Day

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon women's soccer team knew what was at stake Friday afternoon.

Hosting Spelman in a Great South Athletic Conference game, the Lady Hawks needed the win. Behind two goals from freshman Josie Byard and one goal from freshman Anna Raley, Huntingdon knocked off the Jaguars 3-0.

"We challenged ourselves on three fronts for this one," Huntingdon head coach Robert Milner said. "First off, we needed the conference win. Secondly, we wanted to redeem ourselves from the 3-0 loss the last time we played them. And lastly, it was Senior Day and we wanted to get a win for our three seniors (Jenny Burnash, Molly Crossno and Bethany Martin).

"The girls responded well to the challenge. Everyone stepped up their play today and we picked up a good team win. We just kept our plan simple, knocked the ball around and tried to take advantage of our scoring opportunities."

With the win, Huntingdon improves to 3-12 overall and 3-5 in the GSAC. Spelman drops to 5-9 overall and 2-6 in the GSAC).

"It feels great to get a win like this on Senior Day," senior keeper Jenny Burnash said. "We wanted this win and we had a good all around team effort today. This was a conference game and we wanted to prove we were better than what we showed the first time we played Spelman."

Burnash finished with two saves as the Huntingdon defense limited the Jaguars to eight shots and two shots on goal. The Hawks took 14 shots, including nine shots on goal. Byard and Raley each had three shots on goal.

Raley gave Huntingdon a 1-0 lead in the first eight minutes of the game and Byard made it 2-0 on an assist from Kendall Fant in the 29th minute. Byard closed the scoring on an assist from Kathleen Penney in the 73rd minute.

Huntingdon hosts Agnes Scott on Wednesday at 3 p.m.