Oct. 8, 2015
Colorado Springs, Colo. --- The San Jose State women's soccer team held on for its fourth shutout victory of the year by a score of 1-0 on the road at Air Force on Thursday afternoon.
Zoe Makrigiannis made four saves and Dorthe Hoppius scored her fourth goal of the season as the Spartans improved their record on the road to 5-2-1.
"We were able to find a way to win this one," said Spartans' head coach Lauren Hanson. "We competed for the entire 90 minutes, and our back line played phenomenal."
Hoppius collected a rebound from Samantha Orodpour's shot off the crossbar and booted it inside the lower left post to put the Spartans ahead in the 13th minute. While the rest of the first half was evenly contested, the second half fell squarely on the shoulders of San Jose State's back line.
Hayden Kelley, Claire Berkley and Myia Wilkes carved out countless Air Force attacks in the final 20 minutes of play. Makrigiannis, who denied a Falcons penalty kick in the first half, made two more clutch saves in the second half.
"It was a great team effort," Hanson said. "Zoe made some amazing saves for us, especially on the PK."
Wilkes put two of six shots on goal for San Jose State (6-5-2, 4-1-0 MW). Berkley and Darlene Rodriguez each added one shot on goal while Hoppius finished with two. Ally Swift had two of the four shots on goal for Air Force (4-8-1, 2-2-1 MW).
The Spartans continue their stay in Colorado Springs and will face Colorado College in a pivotal match on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. MT. Both teams head into Sunday's contest tied atop the Mountain West table at 4-1-0.