Penn women's soccer beats Lehigh on Olivia Blaber's bicycle kick

Before Tuesday night’s game against Penn women’s soccer, 433 minutes had passed since Lehigh had scored a goal.

After the game, 523 scoreless minutes had passed as the Red and the Blue notched a 2-0 shutout in which both the defense and offense shined.

For the first 75 minutes, the match was a back-and-forth battle. The evenly matched teams both had chances in their opponents’ final third, but each failed to capitalize. Junior goalkeeper Kalijah Terilli kept the Quakers (6-5-3) in the game with multiple diving saves — eight in total — to keep the game scoreless and the allow Penn’s offense to go to work.

In the latter stages of the second half, the offense did just that against the Mountain Hawks (4-6-5). Sophomore back Olivia Blaber broke the draw as she sent the ball to the back of the net with a beautiful bicycle kick off a free kick by junior midfielder Erin Mikolai and the ensuing blocked header by senior midfielder Kaitlyn Moore in the 78th minute. Both Mikolai and Moore were credited with assists.

The late second-half surge continued as freshman forward Anna Estep beat a Lehigh defender and launched a shot off the left post and into the net, providing an insurance goal in the closing minutes of the game.

Coach Darren Ambrose praised his team’s efforts in the weekday nonconference away match.

“I think we got better as the game went on today, which is a good thing given the fact that we have played the first half reasonably well and struggled in the second half this year,” he said. “We started a little slow, but we started to take over in the second half. It was a good momentum builder.”

The strong second-half play had a lot to due with Olivia Blaber. Not only did Blaber score the winning goal — her first collegiate strike — she also supplied the team with a stellar defensive performance with junior back Caroline Dwyer sidelined due to injury.

“Blaber stepped in at outside back and was absolutely tremendous defensively,” Ambrose said. “She defended very well and when we got an opportunity to score a goal, she was there to score it. It was a spectacular bicycle kick, which is very rare in the women’s game.”

As for the bicycle kick, Blaber said she has been known to attempt this type of kick in the past, especially in soccer tennis.

“My whole team was laughing about it because it is not something I haven’t tried before on a few instances,” she said. “So it was exciting to actually have it happen”

“It felt great,” she added. “It is something I have always pictured. I don’t think I could have done it in a more exciting fashion.”

The Quakers will need more of that excitement when they take on Brown on Saturday, the team’s Senior Night.

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