Bears Bowl Over Lady Bulldogs, 6-0

Friday, August 19

Huntsville, Ala.

5:00 PM

Mercer University

1-0-0

Alabama A&M

0-1-0

Team	1	2	Final F
Mercer	2	4	6
Alabama A&M	0	0	0

8/19/2016 8:43:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

NORMAL, Ala. – Abbey Reddig scored the final two goals of the game and the first of her career as the Mercer women's soccer team rolled past Alabama A&M, 6-0, on Friday afternoon to open the 2016 season. Reddig led a quintet of scorers as Valeria Bermeo, Maddie Clark, Logan Culver and Emma Tokuyama also netted goals.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Mercer jumped to a 1-0 lead in the 10^th minute when Clark scored her first goal of the season off a nicely played ball from Katelyn Dimopoulos. The Bears went up 2-0 in the 40^th minute after freshman Culver stole the ball from an Alabama A&M player and took a quick shot to the right side of the net.

Bermeo extended Mercer's lead to 3-0 in the 53^rd minute off a cross from Clark after a long ball from Jamilah Tejan. The Bears' rookies continued to contribute when Tokuyama sailed in a penalty kick in the 78^th minute to increase Mercer's advantage to 4-0. Redding scored both her goals in the final 10 minutes of the match off assists from Emma Chandlee and Caroline Smith.

WOMAN OF THE MATCH
Reddig scored a team-leading two goals off two shots on goal. The senior netted the first goals of her career in the season opening match.

STAT OF THE GAME
Mercer outshot Alabama A&M, 27-8, including a 12-3 margin in the second half.

NOTABLES

Maddie Clark scored the first goal of the match and is credited with the game-winner, giving the redshirt senior a total of eight game-winning goals. Clark is now tied for fourth all-time on Mercer's career game-winning-goals leaderboard.
A total of five Bears dished out assists as Mercer logged six goals and five assists in the match.
Cristina Mursuli and Leah Cochran shared time in goal, as Mursuli nabbed four saves and Cochran grabbed two.
Mercer also led Alabama A&M in corner kicks, 10-1.
Mercer recorded its first shutout of the season.

QUOTABLES
"It's always nice to start off your season with a victory. I was proud of the players' effort overall. We came out a bit sluggish in the first half and addressed some things to work on for the second half. The team responded very well and came out in the second half and put on a much better 45 minutes and we were able to come out the result. Credit to Alabama A&M, they gave us some fits in the first half. Hopefully this prepares us for our big showdown with Oklahoma State on Sunday." – Head Coach Tony Economopoulos.

RECORDS UPDATE
Mercer starts the year with a 1-0 record, while Alabama A&M is 0-1.

UP NEXT
Mercer will host Oklahoma State on Sunday, Aug. 21 at 1:00 p.m. at Bear Field.

For all the latest information on Mercer women's soccer, please visit MercerBears.com or, for up-to-the-minute updates, follow Mercer soccer on Twitter at @MercerWSoccer or www.twitter.com/MercerWSoccer.