Women’s soccer to welcome FGCU in final regular-season home game
The final regular-season home game has arrived for the Bellarmine University women’s soccer team as the Knights will host FGCU at 1 p.m. (ET) Sunday in Owsley B. Frazier Stadium.
Bellarmine (1-4-8, 1-1-4 ASUN) and FGCU (6-5, 4-1) will be meeting for the third time in the Division-I era. While the Eagles hold a 1-0-1 lead in the series, the tie actually came on a historical night for the Knights. After FGCU captured the regular-season contest 2-0 in 2021, the two teams squared off again in the ASUN Tournament quarterfinals, where Bellarmine followed an official 1-1 draw by winning a penalty kick session 4-3, thus advancing to the conference semifinals for the first time ever in D1.
Bellarmine will attempt to halt a surging FGCU. The Eagles will enter Frazier Stadium fresh off three convincing ASUN wins in a row: 3-1 and 3-0 at home against North Florida and Jacksonville, respectively, and, most recently, 5-1 at Eastern Kentucky.
Bellarmine has faced a string of ASUN opponents in the top tier of the conference in scoring and that will continue with FGCU, which ranks third in the league in goals per game (1.82) and overall goals (20). The Eagles boast the conference’s most highly decorated attacker in Louise Lillback, who is the reigning ASUN Player of the Year and was the 2022 ASUN Preseason Player of the Year.
Although she missed a pair of games, Lillback still leads FGCU with six goals, which is tied for second in the ASUN. Ashley Labbe has collected four goals. Leah Scarpelli is the league leader in assists with six. Goalkeeper Katie Sullivan has registered three shutouts, a 1.64 goals-against average and .719 save percentage.
Senior Day will unfold Sunday for Bellarmine, which concludes the regular season with three road games. The Knights will honor seniors Grady Clark, Elyssa Francis, Brielle Heuglin, Sarah Kraus, Zenia Nava and Tristan Whalen.
With four regular-season matches remaining, Bellarmine is in a four-way tie for sixth in the ASUN with seven points. Eight teams make the conference tournament. FGCU, which has five matches left, is third in the league with 12 points, trailing only Lipscomb (18) and Liberty (16) — both have played one more conference game than the Eagles.
Bellarmine is coming off its first win — and first ASUN victory — of the season after defeating Stetson 3-0 on Thursday. It also marked the program’s first win under new head coach Paul Babba. The Knights tied their D1-era program record for goals scored.
Freshman midfielder Alexa Orozco netted her team-high third goal of the season while Kraus pocketed the first goal of her career. Bellarmine’s defense, which is tied for first in the ASUN in GAA (0.69), recorded its seventh shutout, which is tied for second in the league.
Following the Stetson game, Kraus, Heuglin, Nava, Orozco, freshman defender Sidney Rigsby and sophomore midfielder Chelsea DeVettori have all exceeded 1,000 minutes of playing time on the season.
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