Midwestern St. MSU (0-1-0, 0-0-0)

Regis (CO) Regis (1-0-0, 0-0-0)

Midwestern St. MSU

(0-1-0, 0-0-0)

Final

Aug. 25, 2022

Regis (CO) Regis

(1-0-0, 0-0-0)

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
Midwestern St. MSU	0	0	0
Regis (CO) Regis	1	0	1

Summary
Box Score

Game Recap: Women's Soccer | Aug 25 | David Wilson, Assistant AD-Communications

Regis capitalizes on set piece, earn first win on turf fields to open the 2022 season

DENVER, Colo. — The Regis University women's soccer team crossed off a slew of "firsts" on Thursday when the team upended Lonestar foe Midwestern State University Texas by a 1-0 final to open the 2022 campaign.

Thursday's victory was not only win No. 1 of the new season, but it also marked the first win for the Rangers (1-0 overall, 0-0 RMAC) on their new turf fields, the first win under the field lights, and the first win with head coach Jeff Frykholm at the helm since he took over the program this past May.

"This was a terrific win against a NCAA Tournament team, really good team, in Midwestern State," Frykholm said. "It was a game where we worked through some issues in the first half and I'm really proud of the way the girls responded to the changes. It was a big win for us, first one at home under the lights, so it was pretty special."

How it Happened: Midwestern State (0-1 overall, 0-0 Lonestar) controlled play early in the first half, registering six of the game's first seven shot attempts through the opening 33 minutes.

The Regis defense, anchored by graduate student goalkeeper Katelyn Martin, were able to weather the storm and keep the Mustangs off the scoreboard.

"We were a little nervous, little anxious and they were sitting on us. I think their (Mustangs) experience kind of showed in that first half as we were working some kinks out," Frykholm said. "We weathered the storm and were able to limit their quality scoring chances. And that's good defending, when you're under pressure a little bit, but you're not giving up a ton of corners or having your goalkeeper diving left and right to make saves. Most of Katelyn's saves (Thursday) were relatively straight forward."

Martin stopped all eight shots she faced while the Rangers as a team limited MSU Texas to three corner kicks for the evening.

And while the Regis defense kept the Mustangs' off the scoreboard on their set pieces, the Rangers capitalized on a corner kick of their own at the 41:29 mark when graduate student Alexis Gaffney headed in a beautiful ball from Emma Longbrake for what proved to be the game-winning goal.

"The first day of our two-a-day practices we started working on set pieces. I told our players then and told them again (Thursday) that 'Early season set pieces win and lose games,'" Frykholm said. "It has been an emphasis for us. On that play, we were just trying to make it difficult for the goalkeeper. Emma sent in a great ball and Alexis had the courage to get up and get her head on it in the middle of a big crowd."

The score was the first of Gaffney's career with the Rangers after coming over from Valparaiso in the offseason.

With momentum firmly on their side, the Rangers played a balanced second half and had two quality scoring chances ring off the post.

"We were able to set the perimeter a little more in the second half, creating some turnovers in the midfield and having our defense initiate our attack," Frykholm said. "We had a lot of good chances on the counter. So even though we didn't put in another goal, we know we easily could have had a couple more go in. Given the way the game was, to get the 3-4 quality chances we had, I was pleased with that."

Up next: Regis will look to sweep the opening home stand when it welcomes in another quality Lonestar foe in Texas Women's University; a team that finished 12-5-2 overall and advanced to the Lonestar title game in 2021.

"Texas Women's is very good as well. We're expecting a quite a bit of pressure and they tend to press high, which is something we've trained for. We've put our players under a lot of pressure in preparation for these two matches," Frykholm said. "If we can sustain that pressure, and play like we did in the second half tonight, we like our chances. We're looking forward to that test against a good team."

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