No. 15 Women's Soccer tops Heidelberg 5-1 to extend win streak to nine matches
By Tim Glon
TIFFIN -- The No. 15-ranked Ohio Northern women's soccer team ran its winning streak to nine matches with a 5-1 victory at Heidelberg on Tuesday afternoon at Hidden Valley Soccer Complex.
The Polar Bears improve to 11-1-1 overall and stay on top of the Ohio Athletic Conference with a 4-0-0 record, while the Student Princes fall to 7-6-1, 1-3-0.
Northern is now 10-0-1 in its last 11 matches.
Senior Abbey Oswald (Lambertville, Mich./Bedford), junior Sarah Puntel (Strongsville) and freshman Sydney Leshnak (Liberty Township/Mount Notre Dame), senior Rose Nienaber (Cincinnati/Oak Hills) and freshman Siena Ward (Newport Beach, Calif./Newport Harbor) all scored goals for ONU.
Senior Mary Kate Munz (Gahanna/Lincoln) and and freshman Jenna Fuller (Countryside, Ill./Lyons Township) each had two assists for Ohio Northern.
"I'm very proud of our effort and focus today," ONU head coach Mark Batman said. "We came into a tough place to play, midweek during Fall Break, and took care of business. We played well right from the start and built a good lead. Now it's on to John Carroll on Friday."
The first three goals came as the Polar Bears built a 3-0 halftime lead.
Oswald scored on a header just 13:37 into the match and Puntel followed with an unassisted goal 13 minutes later.
Leshnak headed in a ball from Munz 1:49 later to make it 3-0 in the 29th minute.
Heidelberg notched its goal in the 55th minute, but the Polar Bear defense stood firm the rest of the way to clinch the victory.
Ward scored on a header off a cross from Fuller with 4:11 left in the match and Ward tapped in a reboound off a shot by Fuller that hit the crossbar in the final minute to complete the scoring.
ONU out-shot HU 28-1 and had 11 corner kicks to one for the hosts.
The Polar Bears will return to action Friday evening with a 7 pm match against John Carroll.
