Cowgirls hold off Princeton

by Bobby Abplanalp
Wyoming Sports.org

Defender Chelsea Coddington scored the first goal of her career in the 31st-minute of the second half and Wyoming held on for a 1-0 win over the Princeton Tigers at the Louis S. Madrid Sports Complex Friday.

With the win Wyoming, 4-1-1, is now unbeaten since an opening season 1-0 loss at Denver. Princeton, the defending Ivy League champion, falls to 1-3.

Both teams played tough defense and the home crowd saw great goalkeeping on both ends of the field, but Coddington got behind Tigers goalkeeper Alyssa Pont and capitalized on the open net for her first collegiate score.

“It feels amazing,” Coddington said of her goal. “It’s about time; I’ve been trying to get it (the ball) in there (the net) for a while now. Beating Princeton feels really good. We’re on a roll and we wanted to come out and keep going.”

Wyoming coach Danny Sanchez said the Cowgirls will build some confidence from th win.

"Princeton is a very good team and I’m pleased with how we battled," Sanchez said. "I’m really pleased with once the game settled. We played moments of better soccer and that’s what we have to keep improving on, but we definitely battled and got a good result against a very good team.”

Princeton out-shot the Cowgirls 12-9 and had a chance to tie things up in the 10th minute when it was awarded a free kick in front of the Wyoming net, but UW goalkeeper Courtney Merkle made a leaping save to preserve the Cowgirls lead for her fourth win of the season.

The Cowgirls will take a day off and then suit up against the Idaho State Lady Bengals Sunday at the Louis S. Madrid Sports Complex, beginning at 12 p.m.

“We’ll come out and work hard for Idaho State,” Coddington said. “We tied them last year 1-1. Hopefully, this year we’ll beat them and I know we can.”