“I thought we did a good job with our approach to the game, how we came out and how we tried to get on top of this team early,” coach Todd Bramble said. “Scoring like that in the seventh minute really goes a long way to settle us down after that, and it really takes some of the pressure off. And then the goals just kept coming and that was nice to see.”
Alabama (5-3-1) opened this weekend with a loss to No. 7 Florida Friday night. The Crimson Tide’s defense held its own in the first half but couldn’t contain the Gators in the second, losing 2-1.
Friday’s loss didn’t deter the Crimson Tide, however. Bramble said the team handled the loss well and only focused on Sunday’s game.
“As disappointing as it was, you’ve got to take the lessons from those games and learn from them,” he said. “And then we had to turn around and be ready to play quickly again. I thought our players handled the emotional aspect of that really well.”
The Crimson Tide scored six of its eight goals in the first half of Sunday’s game. Junior Annalika Steyn opened the scoring in the seventh minute. Two minutes later, senior Maruschka Waldus punched the ball in. Steyn followed Waldus with another goal in the 12th minute and finished off the hat trick with a goal in the 33rd minute.
Steyn, a transfer student from West Virginia, led the team with three goals in her first start for the team.
“It felt great, but it felt even better that we were able to get those three goals,” she said. “We have been practicing those types of finishes, dribbling to the end line and playing back, we’ve been practicing that all week. I’m glad we finally were able to execute it in this game.”
Freshman Ally Ocon scored two goals late in the first half. Freshmen Alexis Mouton and Hailey Brohaugh each scored a goal in the second half.
Alabama will hit the road for its first SEC game travel weekend this weekend, playing Tennessee and Vanderbilt.
“It’s our first SEC road trip, so it brings a whole new set of challenges,” Bramble said. “It’s tough to win on the road in this conference, so we’ll have to have a good week of preparation. We know that both these teams are very good teams, so we expect the games to be tight, close, close games that will be really, really hard fought. We’re looking forward to the challenge though.”
