Purple Knights Open ECC Women's Soccer Slate With 5-1 Win At St. Thomas Aquinas

Sparkill, N.Y.-The University of Bridgeport women's soccer team opened East Coast Conference play on Saturday with big 5-1 road win over the St. Thomas Aquinas College Spartans.  Bridgeport is now 2-4-0 overall and 1-0-0 in the ECC.  STAC remains winless at 0-6-0 overall and 0-1-0 in conference play.

The Purple Knights jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first half when senior Nara DaCosta (Pancas, Brazil) scored off an assist from classmate Maegen Doyle (Harwich, England).

UB held that 1-0 advantage until the 56th minute when the host Spartans tied things up, but Bridgeport quickly responded to jump right back in front just 20 seconds later when Doyle scored off a free kick at the 56:13 mark to surpass the 100 career point mark for her Bridgeport career.

Freshman Helen Klos (Erkelenz, Germany) increased the Purple Knights lead to 3-1 with her first collegiate goal off an assist from classmate Rachael Howard (Walsall, England) in the 72^nd minute.

Eleven minutes later, the visitors up their lead to 4-1 when senior Alyssa Samson (Ledyard, Conn.) found the back of the net off an assist from DaCosta, and Doyle closed the scoring out in the match with another free kick goal, her seventh tally of the season, to make the final score 5-1 and give 103 career points at UB.

Freshman goalkeeper Claudia Torres (Santo Domingo, D.R.) made three saves to earn her second straight victory.

Bridgeport dominated play on Saturday outshooting St. Thomas Aquinas, 24-6.

Up next, the UB women's soccer team returns to Knights Field next Saturday for a Homecoming Day matchup versus Lincoln (Pa.) University.  Game time is 12 noon.