Darian Murdock recorded her second-straight two-goal match and her fourth multiple-goal outing of the season as Dixie State’s women’s soccer team posted a 2-1 result vs. Dominican University on Tuesday afternoon at Koret Field on the Notre Dame de Namur campus. The match was relocated to the NDNU campus due to the wildfires in Northern California.
Murdock got the Trailblazers (8-3-0, 4-2-0 PacWest) on the board in the 19th minute after she picked off a Penguin goal kick and rocketed a shot inside the right post past DUC keeper Alyssa Ramos. Dominican (3-7-1, 1-4-0 PacWest) managed to net the equalizer midway through the 25th minute when Kayla Kukaua corralled a deflected free kick and tucked the ball into the goal to square the match at 1-1.
Dixie State started the second half on the offensive, and it immediately paid dividends as senior Tana Singley played a ball into the Penguin penalty box to Murdock, who finished with a blast just 54 seconds into the stanza to put DSU back on top at 2-1. Singley’s assist, her ninth of the season, broke DSU’s single-season record for assists, which was previously held by former DSU standout Jasmine Arollo, who recorded eight assists in the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
The Trailblazer defense kept the Penguins at bay the rest of the way as DUC managed just six second-half shots, three on goals, which were stopped sophomore netminder Felicity Tarr as DSU held on for its second win in as many games on the current road trip.
“It was a good battle today,” DSU head coach Kacey Bingham said. “Darian [Murdock] had two crucial finishes for us and Felicity [Tarr] had some big-time saves for us in goal. We played hard and smart.”
Murdock’s second-half goal was not only her PacWest-leading 12th of the 2017 season, it was her 12th career game-winning goal overall, which moved her into a tie atop DSU’s career GWG list with former DSU player Wendy Stratford (2007-10).
Dixie State continues its four-game Bay Area road swing Thursday in San Francisco with a PacWest match at Academy of Art.
Steve Johnson is the Associate Athletic Director for Media Relations and Collegiate Licensing at Dixie State University. For more DSU Athletics news, please visit www.dixieathletics.com and follow Dixie State on Twitter at @DixieAthletics.