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“Whoosh!”
The sound was audible throughout the day Sunday at Ochrymowycz Field, where the St. Mary’s University women’s soccer team held its home opener.
The Cardinals (2-0) coaxed the sound out of the net nine times, cruising to an easy 9-1 victory over Martin Luther College.
Watching from the bleachers, members of the SMU men’s soccer team used the sound effect to describe any remarkable offensive move their female counterparts executed against their overmatched opponents.
In a game that sounded as if it were taking place in the middle of a wind storm, no player garnered more audible expressions of awe than SMU’s Bridgette Baggio.
The senior forward opened the offensive onslaught with her ‘signature move’ just over four minutes in.
Sprinting with the ball down the left side, Baggio stopped on a dime, flicked the ball behind her with her right foot and spun around — all in one motion — to catch it with her left foot, leaving her defender lost and confused as she sent a perfect cross to Melissa Paulson, who drilled the back of the net for the game’s first goal.
“It just happens,” Baggio said. “People are like, ‘Oh, that’s your signature move’, but I don’t even think about it, I just do it.”
Six minutes later, she was at it again. This time, Baggio used a hesitation move followed by a quick burst of acceleration to burn her defender, leading to another scoring hookup with Paulson that was nearly identical to the first.
“She’s a dynamic player, and she’s fun to watch,” SMU coach Chris Dembiec said of Baggio. “She has a lot of different moves, and she likes taking people one-on-one.
“She’s definitely a crowd pleaser.”
Baggio wasn’t the only Cardinal to please the crowd.
Late in the second half, freshman Amy Sibik used the soccer equivalent of a crossover dribble in basketball to embarrass two Knights defenders before unleashing a screaming strike from nearly 20 yards out for her second goal of the game and her third in two days.
Seniors Kendra Maloney and Lisa Tlougan, along with sophomore Dana Winkler and junior Nadia Effendi scored their first goals of the season. Freshman midfielder Lauren Mazzuca recorded the first goal of her SMU career.
The Cardinals outshot the Knights 33-5 and extended their nonconference winning streak to 19 games.
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