SEARCY – The Harding women's soccer team scored early and held on to defeat Ouachita 3-1 on Tuesday in Great American Conference action at the Stevens Soccer Field.
RECORDS
Harding improves to 7-2-2 overall and 4-0-1 in the GAC. Ouachita falls to 4-6-0 overall and 3-2-0 in the GAC.
GOALS
Harding 1, Ouachita 0 – 6th minute – Bethany Sutherland picked up a loose ball in the box and finds Carley Stevens for the goal.
Harding 1, Ouachita 1 – 31st minute – Morgan Allen found Bryson Rial who shot from the left side of the 18-yard box.
Harding 2, Ouachita 1 – 39th minute – Melita Sutherland sent a cross into the box that was headed into the back of the net by Averie Albright.
Harding 3, Ouachita 1 – 56th minute – Bethany Sutherland dribbled from 40-yards out and hit a left-footed shot from the top of the 18.
TEAM STATS
The Lady Bisons have not lost in nine games. Harding has won seven times and has tied twice during its streak.
The Lady Bisons move into sole possession of first place in the GAC with the win. The winner of the GAC regular season will host the conference tournament Nov. 6-8.
Harding took 22 shots in the game and seven of them were on goal.
Ouachita took 10 shots and three of them were on goal.
INDIVIDUAL STATS
Sophomore forward Carley Stevens scored her sixth goal of the season which is second on the team for Harding.
Junior forward Averie Albright netted her first goal of the season and her third career game winning goal for the Lady Bisons.
Freshman forward Bethany Sutherland scored her 10th goal of the season for Harding. She leads the GAC in goals and it's the first time a Harding player has scored 10 goals in a season since Adriana Lucar (2010-11) scored 11 during the 2011 season. Sutherland joins 16 other Harding players since 1998 that have scored 10 or more goals in their career.
It was the second time this season Sutherland has scored and had an assist in the same game. The first time was against Southern Nazarene in Searcy.
Bryson Rial's goal was her second of the season for Ouachita.
UP NEXT
Harding will continue GAC action on Thursday when it hosts East Central at 7 p.m., at the Stevens Soccer Field.
