ONU Opens OAC With a Win!

The ONU Polar Bears opened up conference play when they hosted Muskingum College last Saturday. It began as a foggy morning in Ada but turned out to be a great day for ONU soccer. Saturday also celebrated Parent's Day for the Polar Bears as the players and staff gave their appreciation to the family members that support our team every day! We do have the best parents and fans in the OAC!



The Bears wasted no time in getting on the scoreboard as Kristina Klusek would connect with Sami Atkinson in the 3rd minute to notch Atkinson's 5th goal of the season. ONU would control the tempo for the majority of the first half and would continue to test the Musky back line. In the 19th minute, Freshman Sandra Thorarensen would send a ball into Senior Alyssa Merrick who turned and sent a shot just under the crossbar. This would be Merrick's 3rd goal of the season and Thorarensen's first assist of her collegiate career. The Bears would continue to press as Atkinson would assist a great goal by Sophomore Lauren Brown. This was Brown's first goal of the year in the 28th minute; the goal would be the last one of the half for the Polar Bears. The second half mirrored the first as much of the game was controlled by the orange and black. ONU would find the net for the final time of the game in the 49th minute as Thorarensen would get on the end of a loose ball in the box to score her first goal of the season. Both Atkinson and Thorarensen would finish the day with a goal and an assist to help the bears to a 1-0 conference record and a 5-1-2 overall record. ONU’s defense held the Muskingum offense to just three shots over 90 minutes. Head Coach Mark Batman’s thoughts on the OAC opener, “Muskingum was certainly not an easy opponent. They fight, like all the other OAC teams do. I felt we played very well and didn’t allow anything easy for them offensively, while creating a lot of great scoring chances for ourselves. Today was a great start for our conference season and we are looking to build from this match. It was great to get everyone some much deserved minutes and experience on the field today. The experience the players gain in these games is crucial for our development as a team if we want to win this conference. We have two tough games next week which we will now place our focus on.” Up next ONU hosts Mount St. Joseph in a non conference match up this Wednesday.