No. 22 Texas A&M University-Commerce Begins 2009 Season with 5-0 Win Over Mars Hill

Box Score

The No. 22 Texas A&M University-Commerce women's soccer team opened its 2009 season in convincing fashion with a 5-0 shutout of Mars Hill in Greeneville, Tennessee on Friday afternoon.

A&M-Commerce (1-0) raced out to a 4-0 advantage in the first half as sophomore transfer Devon Herrman scored her first of two goals and assisted on another for the early lead. Hermann added another in the 64th minute for the hat trick. The last A&M-Commerce player to record a hat trick was teammate Meagan Lasley, who had three in 2008, who scored three times against Eastern New Mexico on October 17, 2008.

Goalkeepers Taylor Jordan and Randi Hafele made three saves in the shutout. Each of them saw 45 minutes of action; plus Lasley had a game-high nine shots and Chelsey Haight, Lindsey Durham and Hermann each added five shots in the victory as A&M-Commerce out shot Mars Hill by a 33-to-4 margin.

Herrman put the Lions on the board in the sixth minute when she capitalized on a corner kick that was deflected by teammates Whitney Hancock and Meagan Lasley into the bottom right corner. Next, Lasley scored her first goal of the season when her crossing shot was deflected a Mars Hill defender and into the back of the goal to extend the A&M-Commerce margin to 2-0. In the 41st minute, A&M-Commerce stretched its lead to 3-0 on Herrman's second goal of the night when she capitalized on a shot by sophomore Lindsey Durham that was blocked and fell to her feet for the quick touch and goal.

A little over three minutes later, junior Chelsey Haight added the fourth goal of the opening half when she took a crossing pass from Herrman and blasted into the bottom left corner off the goalkeeper's hands. With a 4-0 lead, Herrman got the hat trick when she took a long cutting shot that went past the Mars Hill goalkeeper in the top right corner of the goal. 

The 5-0 victory in the season opener is the largest margin of victory since A&M-Commerce began the 2000 season began with an 8-0 rout of Ouachita Baptist. Next up for the Lions is a matchup against host Tusculum on Sunday at 11 a.m.