For the last home game of the spring season, the Alabama soccer team beat The University of Alabama at Huntsville 7-1 on Saturday.

Of the seven goals scored by the Crimson Tide, junior Laura Lee Smith scored four. The other three were scored by juniors Theresa Diederich, Pia Rijsdijk and Dani Herubin.

Working mainly on the technical plays, Alabama proved that the off-season has benefited the team. Coach Todd Bramble said he was not expecting to score seven goals.

“We just talked about how important it is in games like this that we come out and get a fast start and set the tone in the first half,” Bramble said. “That was our objective, to give Huntsville no hope, that they weren’t going to have any success in the game. We did a pretty good job of that.”

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Bramble said Alabama scored several creative goals.

“Scoring goals is one of the more difficult things in our sport, but I thought our team did a good job in a variety of different ways,” Bramble said.

Smith took charge during the first half, scoring two goals within the first 15 minutes of the scrimmage. Smith said scoring the first goals helped her team succeed early in the first half.

“I think the first goal, when you play teams that you’re expected to beat, sometimes you come out a little bit tense and you don’t relax as much as you probably should because you’re thinking in the back of your mind, ‘What happens if you mess up and they get a goal?’” Smith said. “I think when I scored that first goal, it kind of released a lot of the pressure, and we started playing like we should.”

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Smith scored her third goal late in the first half. She also scored the last Alabama goal in the second half. UAH scored its lone point during the last minutes of the game with a penalty kick.

Coming into their own during the off-season were freshmen Auburn Mercer and Caroline Alexander and sophomore Kaylee Semelsberger. Bramble said their aggression is helping the team.

“That’s part of their natural personality,” Bramble said. “They are super aggressive players, and that’s one of the main things we like about having them out on the field. All three of them are doing a really good job about them.”

With a three-week break between games, Alabama will travel to Clemson after spring break.

“I think spring break will do us a lot of good,” Bramble said. “The thing we have to do a good job of is training after spring break. We have to get back to training because Clemson’s going to be a good team.”

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