Katie Sullivan might have been the only one of Creighton’s 35 players who wasn’t in a celebratory mood after last Friday’s season-opening win over Kansas State. The redshirt sophomore goalkeeper from Wheaton, Illinois admitted that it was hard to sleep after conceding what head coach Ross Paule characterized as two “soft goals” in the first 10 minutes against the Wildcats.
Sullivan should get plenty of rest when her head hits the pillow on Thursday night after she made a pair of superb saves late in the match to preserve a 1-0 win over South Dakota State and help the Creighton women’s soccer team improve to 2-0-0 on the season.
“Even though we [beat Kansas State] I was very disappointed in myself,” Sullivan said. “But I knew what to fix in practice and how to do it and what I had to do to get my mind mentally ready for this game. I was looking forward to this one. We scouted well and worked on being consistent in practice. It feels great to come out and get a win.”
Sullivan was credited with four saves on the evening, and while the two in the final 10 minutes were of the highlight reel variety, it was the play she made 93 seconds into the second half when she was decisive coming off her line to clear away a counter attack over the top of Creighton’s back line that represented a complete 180 from the player who couldn’t sleep after Kansas State.
“She just bought into that decisive mindset tonight,” Creighton head coach Ross Paule said. “Once you start going you’ve got to go. There is no in between. That’s what she did … if you’re going to go out you have to either clean the ball out or clean somebody out.”
While her decisiveness set the tone, it was her shot-stopping that saved the day. Two of her three second-half saves came at near point-blank range, and both came against South Dakota State’s Maya Hansen.
The first one came in the 81st minute. With no one between her and Hansen, Creighton’s second-year goalkeeper stayed upright and composed, and turned away a golden opportunity with a chest-high deflection. The second was a bit more thrilling, and far more difficult, as she stonewalled Hansen’s attempt to tie the match with 20 seconds left on the clock with a sliding kick save going to her right.
“It was time to die in the box,” Sullivan said of her two clutch saves. “I was watching the time and telling myself ‘ok, we have nine minutes, we have seven minutes, we have four minutes.’ Once we got there it took on a ‘no goals against’ mindset. We were getting a shutout, we were winning this game, it was time to die in the box, go all in and get that ball out. Die in the box — that was my mindset.”
The lead she was protecting came courtesy of a goal scored by senior center back Jaylin Bosak, who cleaned up a deflection off a corner kick served in by sophomore left back Ansley Atkinson in the 74th minute to give Creighton a 1-0 lead.
Bosak was out of the starting lineup again as she continues to nurse an injury, but despite playing restricted role by her standards she was still there when the Bluejays needed her to punch one home on a set piece as she has done so many times throughout her career.
“I just don’t think about [the injury],” Bosak said. “It’s just an excuse. It’s a game and it’s important, so we have to go 100%. I don’t let it affect me.
“Based off previous years it’s now about always making sure we are in check and mentally ready. One of our seniors, Emma Braasch, read us a quote today that every moment matters, so we are really trying to implement that every second matters and every game matters going forward.”
Overall, Creighton was most dominant on Thursday night, but heroics by Sullivan and Bosak became the story of the night because of CU’s inability to take advantage of a 27-7 edge in total shots that was largely accrued during an 11v10 advantage that came courtesy of a red card that was issued in the 60th minute to South Dakota State’s Karlee Manding.
Coach Paule wasn’t giving away the win after the match, but he also wants his team to learn some lessons from having to squeak out a 1-0 win despite the numbers advantage that was in their favor for much of the night.
“We didn’t perform well enough tonight and I’m very honest about that,” he said. “I’ve always said even when we win games that we’re not where we need to be yet. This is another learning game for us. I think we have a lot to improve on from this game. You always celebrate these wins, but we could have done much better as a team at managing the game, keeping the ball, making the other team chase, and having a killer instinct of picking and choosing when you can push for that second goal. We will celebrate it, but we know we can perform much better than what we just did.”
Creighton’s next opportunity to enhance their performance will come on Sunday, September 1 when they put their undefeated record on the line against a Clemson side that has outscored its first two opponents 8-0.
First touch between the Bluejays and Tigers is scheduled for 12:00 p.m at Morrison Stadium.
