DALLAS, Texas (UCFKnights.com) - The defense made key plays to lead the No. 10 UCF women's soccer team to a 4-0 American Athletic Conference victory at SMU on Sunday afternoon.
"Our defense is playing so great right now," UCF head coach Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak said. "I'm so proud of them. They're working so well together. Vera made a huge save in the beginning of the game. We could've been down 1-0 and her making that save just completely kept us in the game and the tide's turned."
UCF (9-1-1, 5-0-1 The American) extended its unbeaten streak to 10 games with the win. The Knights also recorded their fifth straight contest with four or more goals.
Dominant defense came up big today.
- While goalkeeper Vera Varis is only credited with one save in the match, the UCF defense disrupted the SMU offense on Sunday.
- SMU had five corner kicks in the match and took 11 shots, but only one was on goal.
- Varis has not allowed a goal in league play, and has not conceded a marker since Aug. 25.
- The junior entered the weekend ranked fifth in the nation, and saw her goals against average drop to 0.25 after a pair of shutouts on the weekend.
- The Knights have not allowed more than one goal in a match since the season opener at then-No. 4 South Carolina.
The offense sparked late in the match.
- Senior Morgan Ferrara scored her 10th goal of the season on a pass from Kayla Adamek in the 20th minute for her fifth game-winning goal of the campaign.
- Stefanie Sanders doubled the UCF edge in the 67th minute, scoring her second goal of the season off a pass from Carrie Lawrence.
- Adamek tallied a goal of her own to extend the Black and Gold advantage in the 79th minute, off a back-tap from Lauren Nemeroff.
- Ferrara added a second goal in the match for the final 4-0 mark. With 11 goals so far, Ferrara extended the streak to six straight campaigns with at least one Knight scoring 10 goals.
- In the last two weekends of league play, UCF has outscored its opponents 19-1.
The streak is still rolling.
- UCF's unbeaten streak is at 10 matches.
- The Knights have not lost since the season opener on Aug. 18.
- The streak is UCF's longest since 2014 when the Knights won 10 in a row.
NEXT UP
The Knights return to action on Oct. 15, making the trip to Baton Rouge to face LSU.
DON'T MISS OUT
The UCF women's soccer team is set for its fifth season under head coach Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak and will welcome six teams from the 2016 NCAA Tournament to the UCF Soccer Complex in 2017. Click here or call (407) 823-1000 for ticket information.
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