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TWU
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Life > Athletics > Soccer > 09/13/06
MEAN GREEN SHUTS OUT PIONEERS
DENTON, Texas – The University of North Texas used its speed and capitalized on errors in the second half to shut out Texas Woman's University, 6-0, Wednesday night at the Mean Green Village.
"It's a tough game, it's always a tough game," Head coach Fleur Benatar said. "We always get up for this game and we thought we could catch UNT a bit since they played two games last week and we played one. And I'm an alum too and for those reasons, our team gets excited about playing UNT."
This was the third meeting between these two sides and TWU (2-4-1) played an aggressive first half. The Pioneers kept the defending Sun Belt Conference champions to only one goal at intermission. The Mean Green's first score came off the foot of Kelli Lunsford whose shot from 20 yards was just out of sophomore keeper Aly Vincent's reach as it tucked under the crossbar at 20:19.
The Pioneers' best scoring opportunity came at 22:38 when junior Natalie Grant boomed a left-footed blast from 35 yards out forcing Kandice Ellis to dive and punch the ball out for a save.
But it was all UNT (3-2-1) in the second half. Dani Slavonic scored at 46:36 by launching the ball into the net from the top of the box. Then UNT went on a scoring spree, notching three goals in seven and a half minutes from Slavonic, Kristen Campbell and Heather Hutyra. The last goal came off a misplayed ball across the defense which Jamie Yates gathered and sent back in at 86:10.
"Traditionally we've always played well in the first half," Benatar added. "Natalie Grant had an unbelievable shot on goal that Kandice Ellis had to dive for. But then they got their rhythm and it was just a matter of time. Division I has the speed and the skill. And you can't teach speed."
UNT totaled 30 shots to TWU's five. Senior Emily Meinen had two shots while Grant, freshman Chastity Hayter and senior Mandy Lambert each added one. Vincent, last week's Lone Star Conference defensive player of the week, made eight saves.
TWU played at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, the defending Division II national champions, last Saturday. The Pioneers host Harding University (1-2-2) Friday afternoon before opening LSC action Sunday at home against Angelo State University (5-1).
"I think these last two games are character building for our team," Benatar said. "These were hard games to play and Friday's game will help too as we get ready to start conference in a few days."
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