SOCCER

Troy soccer is on a roll in its last three games after starting the 2022 season 0-2-0. Since then, the Trojans have rattled off two big wins and a tie, impressing the Sun Belt Conference with their recovery.

Robert Lane comes to Troy as the former assistant coach at the Georgia for three seasons, where he went 24-1910.

“This group of players has a great balance of experience and youthful eagerness that should allow for a seasonlong journey of growth and development,” Lane said. “We’re far from a finished product, but we have enough talent to make any match a challenge for our opponent.”

Following the 0-2-0 start, Troy rattled off a massive 3-1 win over McNeese State before tying North Alabama, 0-0 in the South Alabama Tournament. These two matches helped extend Troy’s unbeaten streak at regular-season tournament games to eight, with the team’s last loss coming against Alabama back in 2017.

Thursday night saw Troy extend its unbeaten streak to three with a 1-0 win over Mercer despite battling inclement weather. Nia Wilson put all the pieces together in the 65th minute after receiving the throw-in from Jordan Stack for her first-game winning goal.

Lane’s hiring brought a handful of new Trojans to the roster, including two critical transfers in Jocelyn Garcia from Georgia and Ashley Rainho from High Point. Also, the team signed five freshmen despite the late start in recruiting with Nittany Vega, Halee Bradbury, Abria Smith and Jordan Schaetzly.

The top-five scorers from 2021 return to Troy in Erin Bloomfield, Ella Owen, Taytum Terrell, Nia Wilson and Lisa Blankestein. As a team, the Trojans retained 91 percent of points, 94 percent of goals and 82 percent of assists from 2021.

“We’ve said from day one that that star of the team is the team, and I think anyone who has followed this group to date can see that we continue to have different players stepping up on different nights to help get the job done,” Lane said.

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