Azumi Manriki got the Jays on the board first (Juszyk / WBR)
Junior midfielder Azumi Manriki and sophomore transfer Andrine Westlie tickled the twine on Friday night at Caniglia Field to lead the Creighton women’s soccer team to a 2-1 win over Omaha. Manriki’s goal came in the 20th minute and Westlie followed up with a header in the 49th to help the Bluejays close out the preseason in style ahead of a highly anticipated opening weekend of the regular season at Morrison Stadium against Nebraska and Missouri.
With this being his team’s only friendly, Creighton head coach Ross Paule put more pressure on the performance he hoped to see from his team in order to gauge his team’s level.
“We needed to see where we are at,” Paule said. “There was some really good, some really sloppy, and some how we want to play, but too many times it was inconsistent. It wasn’t clicking the way we want it to. We kind of expected that, especially when you are making a lot of changes and you are making sure everybody gets some [playing] time. It wasn’t the flow that we wanted to have, but overall it’s what we expected, and we learned a lot about ourselves.”
Creighton started out on the back foot for the first 10-plus minutes of the match as the Mavericks were crisper out of the gate with their connections.
“We sat back, allowed them to play too much, and didn’t put enough pressure on them from the start,” Creighton head coach Ross Paule said. “We allowed them to get flow of the game and they found good spaces, which ended up exploiting us early … once we started getting into a flow and pushing higher up the field, we put our stamp on the game.”
After the Bluejays “found their flow,” their attackers found pockets to create scoring chances against Omaha’s defense as the match neared the midway point of the first half. Midfielders Lara Kazandjian and Azumi Manriki set up a couple dangerous chances with through balls to break UNO’s back line, but the Jays couldn’t find that critical final connection to threaten sophomore goalkeeper Emma Konsmo. Manriki changed that dynamic herself. With 25:11 left in the opening half, the junior from Japan turned and blasted a line drive into left corner of the net from about 35 yards away to give Creighton a 1-0 lead in the 20th minute.
“‘What a finish — a special finish,” Paule said. “Not many goalkeepers are going to be able to save that. ‘Azu’ is a special player. She dictates the run of play and had a very good game today.”
The Bluejays took the one-goal lead into the break, then doubled it three minutes and 40 seconds into the second half when freshman forward Clara Kulick served up a great cross for a textbook header in the box by Oklahoma transfer Andrine Westlie. That held up as the game-deciding play as Omaha senior forward Sophia Green gave the Mavs a late goal on a penalty kick with 6:29 left in the match. Creighton got outshot 10-7, but shots on target ended up 4-2 in favor of the Bluejays.
CU opens their regular season next Thursday, August 17 at Morrison Stadium in a 6:00 p.m. match against a Nebraska squad that received two votes in the United Soccer Coaches Association preseason poll.