By Madeline Hippeard
With a win against Indiana State University on Sept. 3, senior goalkeeper for the Youngstown State University women’s soccer team, Brooklynn Kirkpatrick, broke the school’s all-time win record with 15 total career wins.
The Penguins took the lead early in the game when junior Maddie Keister scored with a header off a corner kick from senior Lianna Van Sice.
Late in the second half, Kirkpatrick and the Penguins’ defense denied Indiana State from scoring multiple times within only a minute during an intense back-and-forth volley near Youngstown’s goal.
Just a little while later, Van Sice sealed the Penguin’s victory with another goal.
Head coach Brian Shrum said one of the team’s biggest strengths this year is being stronger on offense.
“We’ve been a lot more dangerous in front of goal, we’ve been having players stepping up to score goals,” Shrum said.
On the defensive side of the ball, Kirkpatrick recorded seven saves in her record breaking game.
The game ended with a 2-0 victory for the Penguins.
Despite her skill and performance, Kirkpatrick said she owes becoming the all-time-win record holder to her teammates.
“I’ve been here four years now and I’ve been building from the season where we lost every game to now,” Kirkpatrick said. “I couldn’t be more proud and I owe it all to these girls and I couldn’t do any of it without them.”
After their victory against Indiana State, the Penguins lost to Valparaiso University on Sept. 8.
Neither team scored for the first 64 minutes of the game. Then, at the 64:13 mark, Valparasio scored. Valparasio then scored again in a little over a minute. Unable to recover, the Penguins lost the game 2-0.
After the games against Indiana State and Valparaiso, the Penguins will only play Horizon League opponents as conference play begins next week.
The Penguins play again at 5:30 p.m., Sept. 14, when they travel to Detroit, Michigan to face the University of Detroit Mercy.
To find more information on the game and to watch it live, visit YSUsports.com and ESPN+.