Sept. 23, 2008

Box Score

BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana Tech head coach Kevin Sherry watched his team easily defeat Southern 7-0 Tuesday night in Baton Rouge for its seventh win of the young season.

However, Sherry was far from satisfied with the Lady Techsters overall performance.

"We didn't play well but we got the result," Sherry said. "It's not the standard we expect. You could say it's because we rested some players and gave a lot of opportunity to our bench.

"It's a beautiful game and the most popular sport in the world. We want our players to love to play (regardless of the opponent or score). Some of them just went through the motions tonight."

Tech (6-2) jumped out early, as Kiva Gresham scored 44 seconds into the contest as she one-timed the shot past the Jaguars goalkeeper off a cross from the right side by teammate Emily Cleaveland.

Gresham's goal set a school record for the quickest score in Lady Techster history.

Tech upped its advantage to 2-0 in the 10th minute as Kristen Sevier scored an unassisted goal as she picked up a loose ball and shot from 40 yards out, the goal sailing over the goalies head and into the back of the net.

Sherry said he felt as if Tech's early lead might have played a role in his team's lack of intensity and passion for the entire 90 minutes.

""It's difficult," Sherry said. "I think it's human nature to let down once you get up early. We have to learn not to get affected by scoring early goals. We took our feet off the pedal and relaxed.

"Every one of our players should love to play this game and should never miss an opportunity to play with passion. Some of them just didn't play the game they were capable of playing. They should never take playing for granted."

Cleaveland put the Lady Techsters up 3-0 in the 25th minute of the game, scoring on a rebound off a Kat McCullough shot.

Denise Wilson came off the Tech bench and sparked the Lady Techsters, scoring in the 40th minute on an assist from Rachel King, who then scored her own goal in the 43rd minute (assist Whitney Lanie) to give Tech a 5-0 halftime advantage.

Wilson scored her second goal of the game in the 71st minute on an assist from Katlyn Bachan on a through pass that Wilson drove home for a 6-0 lead.

"Denise showed out tonight," Sherry said. "She played with passion and emotion and you could see she really wanted to play. She will get rewarded for her efforts. I'm really happy with what she did today."

The final goal of the contest came in the 78th minute as Olivia Lukasewich one-timed a shot off a crossing pass from McCullough.

Tech outshot Southern 23-5 for the game.

Jean Bernard manned the net for the Lady Techsters for 90 minutes, making two saves.

Tech returns to action when it travels to face Centenary Friday at 7 p.m.