CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Citadel will kick off the first of its seven matches at home this spring on Friday at 1 p.m. as the Bulldogs welcome Jacksonville to WLI Field for a non-conference bout.
As with all of The Citadel's home matches this spring, Friday's contest will be broadcast on ESPN+ from WLI Field.
The Bulldogs (5-2-2) carried over a 4-2-2 record from the fall and knocked off Anderson on the road last Sunday afternoon for their first win of the spring. After falling behind on the Trojans' 12th-minute goal, The Citadel roared back with four unanswered goals, two in each half, to secure the victory.
Ellie Burgess scored twice,
Devyn Nyhart netted the go-ahead goal and
Logan Dix continued her strong season with a strong header from the edge of the box to cap the scoring in the second half.
Dix added a pair of assists in Sunday's match and was honored by TopDrawerSoccer.com as an honorable mention selection for their National Team of the Week for her performance.
Zoey Conrad and
Marie Le Gallo also added their first assists of the campaign.
In goal,
Jess Newton and
Brie Sikes split time, with Newton drawing the start and getting the win after playing the first 66 minutes of the match. Sikes relieved her in the 67th minute and made a pair of saves to prevent Anderson from cutting into the Bulldogs' lead.
Jacksonville (0-4) enters Friday's match still seeking its first goal of the season. The Dolphins have gone 362 minutes to open their spring without finding the back of the net and are seeking their first victory since a 1-0 win over Stetson on Sept. 23, 2018.
On the year thus far, Jacksonville has put six of its 18 shots on target despite not being able to score. In their most recent time out on Sunday morning, the Dolphins took C-USA foe FIU to overtime before the Panthers netted the golden goal in the 92nd minute to notch a 1-0 victory.
After dropping its first two matches in the all-time series against the Dolphins, The Citadel has earned positive results in each of the last two, getting a 1-0 win in Jacksonville on Sept. 15, 2017, before battling to a 1-1 draw in the most recent meeting in Charleston on Sept. 22, 2019. Dix, a freshman at the time, provided the assist on the match-winner at Jacksonville, and Nyhart secured the draw for the Bulldogs in the 2019 bout with assists from
Suzuka Yosue and
Maria Contreras.
The Citadel will wrap up its non-conference slate on Tuesday afternoon at 2 p.m. as the Bulldogs bring another Florida foe to town for a battle with North Florida. That meeting with the Ospreys will be the fifth in program history with North Florida holding a 3-1 edge; in the last match between the two sides, however, The Citadel came away with a 3-2 victory in Charleston on Aug. 19, 2018.
