Gorloks, Scire Reach Milestone Win

Junior forward Melissa Kasper (Oswego, Ill./Oswego) scored two of her team's three goals to give both head coach Luigi Scire and the Webster University women's soccer program their 300th all-time victory here Wednesday evening as the Gorloks earned a 3-1 victory over Westminster College in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action at Westminster Field. 

With the win, Scire becomes the 32nd coach in NCAA Division III women's soccer history to reach 300 career victories, as well as the 24th to do so with only one school. His record at Webster stands at 300-89-16 (.760) in 20 seasons, ranking him 16th in Division III in career winning percentage and 11th among active coaches. In addition, his 300 wins puts him 25th among active coaches and 36th all-time among Division III coaches. Since beginning the women's soccer program in 1999, Scire's teams have never had a losing season and the Gorloks have won 15 or more matches 13 times and has led Webster to 13 regular season SLIAC titles, nine SLIAC Tournament championships and 13 NCAA Tournament appearances.

The women's soccer team is now the seventh athletic team at Webster University that has recorded at least 300 all-time victories. The other teams that Webster that have won 300 or more games all time are baseball, men's and women's basketball, softball, men's soccer and volleyball. 

With Wednesday's victory, Webster improves to 9-2-1 overall and 2-0-0 in the SLIAC, while Westminster falls to 5-3-1 overall and 1-1-0 in league play. 

Kasper, who was named this week's SLIAC Women's Offensive Player of the Week after recording a hat trick last Saturday against MacMurray, got the scoring started in the 10th minute of Wednesday's match as tallied an unassisted goal. 

Freshman midfielder Julia Paradise (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway North) added WU's second goal just a little over three minutes into the second half as she took a pass from junior midfielder Olivia Osterhage (Eureka, Mo./Eureka) for her first career collegiate goal. 

Kasper added her second goal in the 66th minute as she took a pass from Osterhage for her team leading 10th goal of the year. Since being held without a goal and a shot last Wednesday against top-ranked WashU, Kasper has now scored five goals, taken 12 shots, including eight shots on goal and has had three assists for a total of 13 points. 

With her two assists, Osterhage nows leads the Gorloks with eight assists.

The Blue Jays would prevent a shutout by the Gorloks as Kate Ponder tallied an unassisted goal in the 79th minute.

Ponder's goal snapped Webster's six match scoreless streak in regular season league play dating to last season. Prior to Wednesday's match, the Gorloks had held its previous six regular season league foes without a goal since Westminter scored a goal in last year's 4-1 Gorlok victory at World Wide Technology Soccer Park.

For the match, Webster outshot the Blue Jays, 13-6 and 8-4 in shots on goal. In the first half, WU outshot Westminster, 4-1. 

Kasper led the way for the Gorloks with six shots and five shots on goal. In addition to Kasper, seven other Gorloks recorded one shot in the win. 

Natalie Schulte paced the Blue Jays with three shots, all of which were on goal. In addition to Schulte, Ponder had two shots in the loss. 

Senior goalkeeper Alisa Coralic (St. Louis, Mo./Mehlville) played all 90 minutes in goal and recorded three saves, while allowing that one goal to Ponder. Coralic is now 8-2-1 on the season and has recorded 50 saves and allowed 13 goals in 920 minutes of action.

Sarah Cradick (5-3-1) took the loss in the net for the Blue Jays as she had five saves and allowed three goals in 90 minutes of action.

The Gorloks will remain on the road this coming Saturday, Oct. 6 as they travel to Elsah, Ill., for a 1 p.m. SLIAC match against Principia College.