Women’s Soccer Recap
By: Anthony Doria, FM88 Sports
HUNTINGTON, W. Va. (WMUL-FM) — Marshall women’s soccer ended their non-conference slate Sunday with an impressive 4-2 road win over Bellarmine Knights.
Marshall picked up their second road win of the year to move to 2-2-1 on the road this year, and 4-2-2 overall this season.
“I’m really proud of the team’s performance today and especially proud of the way we competed on the road against a very good Bellarmine team,” Head Coach Rafa Simoes said postgame. “I believe they’re going to have a great season in their conference. It was a great final test for us before conference play.” Thank you to herdzone for providing this quote.
Marshall came out fast in the contest. As the contest was nearing the 10th minute, freshman Izzy Young chipped a ball on the far side of the 18-yard box that had the perfect mix of trajectory and angle and found the left corner of the net to make the give Marshall the early lead. Whether the pass was meant to be a centering pass or not, which it looked to be when young kicked the ball, it counts for a goal regardless.
In the 37th minute, as the first half was winding down. Wiktoria Mikrut would earn a penalty kick after a Knights foul, and she would bury it into the back of net for her team, leading fifth on the year to give Marshall a 2-nil lead going into the break.
The Knights wouldn’t go down easily, as they scored a goal quickly in the second half off a deflection that would get them within on,e with plenty of time to equalize.
The herd would not be fazed. In the 70th minute, a great long ball feed from Brooklyn McComas found Geovanna Souza in the 6-yard box, where she was able to curl it around the goalkeeper to give Marshall a 3-1 advantage. The Herd offense wasn’t done there. Only two minutes a Maria Chavez goal off a corner kick would give the herd a 4-1 lead midway through the 2nd half. Both of Chavez’s goals this year have been off corners, and she has scored two of the three corners that Marshall has scored this season.
The Knights did score a couple of minutes later to draw closer, but Marshall would hold on for the 4-2 win.
Marshall keeper Emma Durand made five saves on seven shots to keep up her hot streak after a clean sheet vs. Murray State, and holding 7th ranked West Virginia to there lowest goal total of the season with a career high ten saves. She now has 32 saves this season, her career-high for a season.
Winning on the road is always important, and Marshall has been great at it recently. After going winless in road contests in 2024, Marshall has gone 6-5-3 on the road since 2025. The four goals scored were also Marshall’s highest road total since Simoes took over in 2024.
Marshall will have time to prepare for their first Sun Belt Conference game of the year as they welcome the Sun Belt’s newest member, Louisiana Tech to Huntington on Saturday. “We’re excited to open conference play at home against Louisiana Tech, and we’re looking forward to having our supporters behind us again. They’ve created an incredible home environment for us, and we expect another great crowd and atmosphere next week.” Simoes added. Thank you to herdzone for the quote.
First touch will be at 7 pm, as Marshall looks to be a contender in the conference and get back to the Sun Belt tournament for the second straight year.