The Lady Eagles will go for their sixth win in a row in today’s conference opener against Oklahoma Baptist.
JBU will face a 2-4-0 Lady Bison squad that it has beaten in their last five regular season meetings, going back to 2007.
In fact, the Lady Bison have not scored on John Brown since their 4-1 victory vs. JBU in the 2008 Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament.
This season, however, despite their 2-4-0 record, OBU has not struggled to find the back of the net.
Freshman forward Paula Vicenzo has 10 goals in six games and leads the SAC in scoring. She accounts for nearly half of the Lady Bison’s offensive efforts; her teammates have 12 goals total.
In OBU’s two victories, a 11-0 drubbing of Bethel (Kan.) and a 4-1 win over Missouri Valley last Friday, she scored four and three goals, respectively.
“We have to prepare for the type of play that [Vicenzo] is going to bring to the game,” said Mikey Burks, women’s soccer assistant coach. JBU has not been short on offense, either.
Sophomore forward Laura Garcia and junior midfielder Whitney Brannan both have five goals so far this season.
Unlike OBU, though, the Lady Eagles have turned those goals into wins.
Oklahoma Baptist had lost four in a row before Friday’s victory. JBU’s scheduled non-conference finale against Dallas Christian was canceled after DCC’s women’s team was unable to make the trip due to injuries.
With the canceled contest last weekend, the Eagles will have gone 12 days without a game.
“It’s tough having that long of a break between games, but it gives us a lot of time to prepare for conference games,“ said Burks.
The Lady Bison and Lady Eagles will play at 3 p.m. Thursday at Alumni Field.