MU soccer wins two over the weekend

By Mike Bushnell and Ross Taylor

Published Sept. 25, 2007

Although conference play doesn't begin until Friday, the No. 20 MU soccer team still had a lot to play for in the weekend's non-conference games against No. 19 California and Texas Christian. The Tigers came away from the weekend as winners in both games.

The Tigers (6-2) "Played for Pink" on Friday night and raised approximately $900 for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation to help fund breast cancer research.

In addition, the team and the program honored Meggie Malm, a 22-year-old former MU defender who died Thursday afternoon from injuries sustained in a car accident in Iowa.

"Meg was what you want your daughter to be," coach Bryan Blitz said. "She was such a role model, and she will to continue to be."

Despite the program's emotional loss of Malm, the pink-clad Tigers clawed their way to a spirited 4-0 win behind two goals from freshman forward Alysha Bonnick.

Before the game, the Walton Stadium crowd of 815 observed a moment of silence for Malm.

But when play began, the Tigers made plenty of noise against a nationally respected Cal squad.

The Tigers' high-pressure attack forced the Golden Bears (5-2) off balance on several occasions, resulting in a number of mistakes that ultimately decided the game.

"We want to wreak havoc all over them," sophomore forward/midfielder Michelle Collins said. "We don't want them to control the ball, we don't want them to get any kind of rhythm."

Before Missouri's four-goal assault, Cal had only surrendered two goals through six games.

The game was MU's first since the Stanford Invitational, where the Tigers lost by a one-goal margin to both No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 Santa Clara.

"We all agreed after those two games, even though we lost, that we were going to bring the exact same mentality, exact same type of play back home," Collins said. "We grew so much as a team. We, seriously, can play with anyone after that."

On Sunday, the Tigers continued their strong play with a 6-2 win against the Texas Christian Horned Frogs.

Freshman forward Katya Hessel scored the first two goals of the game, the first two of her career. Junior defender/midfielder Kat Tarr also scored the first of her career on a penalty kick in the second half.

Blitz said he was unsure how the team would perform after the hectic and sad past few days.

"Well, again, I didn't know how the game would progress," he said. "I didn't know if we would have an emotional hangover from Thursday and Friday's events, but again, I think we showed a lot of maturity dealing with human and life adversity and even soccer adversity."

After seeing a 3-0 lead dwindle to 3-2, the Tigers' three goals in the second half blew the game open.

"From a soccer standpoint in the past, we might have panicked when the score was 3-2, but we didn't show any panic," Blitz said. "We just got back our focus and so that was a very good growing step for us as well."