COLUMBUS, Ohio — Sydney Grant scored a pair of goals as Tusculum University finished off a season-opening road trip with a 3-2 victory over Ohio Dominican University in non-conference women’s soccer Saturday morning at Panther Stadium.
Grant scored in the 23rd and 62nd minutes and Addison Rishling added a goal and an assist for the Pioneers (2-0-0), who have opened the season with back-to-back road wins for the first time since 2022.
Tusculum was outshot 12-9 by Ohio Dominican (0-1-1), which scored twice in the final 26 minutes after falling behind 3-0 on goals from Mallory Smucker and Meghan Coakley.
Ohio Dominican had the first two shots on goal of the match, but Tusculum starting keeper Holly Cowan had saves on Madeline Hartke in the second minute and Ashley Yontz in the sixth minute.
Tusculum struck with the first goal at 11:03 as Wilma Axelsson carried a pass from Addison Rishling to the end line, then crossed back for Rishling to fire to the near side for her first goal of the season.
Axelsson had a great look for a goal of her own in the 14th minute, but Ohio Dominican keeper Ella Schnitzer made a lunging save to keep the Panthers to a 1-0 deficit.
Cowan had her first test in the Tusculum goal in the 19th minute as a pass into the box in the 19th minute led to a turnaround shot from Yontz that Cowan went down to stop.
At 22:05, Grant scored her first of the afternoon as a chip attempt from Marin Wills from distance was deflected, allowing Grant to sneak behind the defense and shoot past Schnitzer to the far post for her second of the season.
Cowan denied Hartke in the 29th minute as she dove to the near post to prevent the goal. Tusculum had the final shot on goal of the first half in the 43rd minute, which came from distance by Lillie Clifton.
Noemie Tartrou took over in goal for the second half for the Pioneers and made her first save on Ali Mathis in the 53rd minute. She added another save in the 59th minute by going to the ground to smother a try from Avery Bowden.
Grant and Rishling went to work in the 62nd minute as Rishling served a perfect through pass to Grant, who finished off her third of the season and second of the afternoon for a 3-0 Tusculum lead at 61:52.
Ohio Dominican got on the scoreboard at 64:20 as the Panthers’ Smucker took advantage of slow play on defense to come away with the ball and beat Tartrou in a one-on-one situation.
The Panthers kept up the pressure and cut the deficit to 3-2 at 85:52, when Coakley headed home a free kick from Mathis. However, that would be the final shot attempt for either team in the match.
Both teams had two corner kicks in the match, with Tusculum called for 15 fouls to 10 for Ohio Dominican. Schnitzer finished with four saves for the Panthers, with Cowan making four stops in the first half for the Pioneers and Tartrou adding two in the second half.
Tusculum returns to Tennessee for an intrastate matchup on Wednesday, September 10 at Lee, beginning at 5 p.m.
