LORMAN, Miss. – The Alcorn State University women's soccer program will face possibly its most difficult test of the season Sunday morning when it battles the defending SWAC Champion Howard Bison at 11 a.m. inside Sicard Hollow Park.
Alcorn remains among the top-two in the country for saves per game at 11.42 and ranks in the top-15 for shot accuracy with a .552 percentage, targeting 16 of the unit's 29 shots on the goal.
Freshman
Kali Helms has been a top-five goalkeeper for almost the entire season, currently placing fifth or better in saves per game (9.09) and total saves (100).
Helms has made 11 starts during the purple and gold's 12 matches while racking up 100 saves, the fourth-best mark for a single season in program history so far.
Three different Lady Braves have found the back of the net as junior
Mireya Gonzalez, senior
Christina Grybos and junior
Anouchka Berthelot have all registered a goal.
Gonzalez has two assists on the season, giving her three for her career to tie her for fourth on the all-time leaderboard. The forward from Los Angeles, California also places seventh in program history with 11 career points as she leads the squad with four.
Gonzalez leads Alcorn with four shots on goal, senior
Anjelica Dugan is second with three, Grybos and sophomore
Sarah-Joy Romain have two and three other Lady Braves have one.
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Scouting the Howard Bison (10-2, 7-0 SWAC)
The Bison are riding a seven-game winning streak into Sunday's matchup, while shutting out all seven opponents. Their only two losses have been at Navy and Longwood.
HU has been purely dominant all season long, outscoring its foes 22-6 while recording a shutout in nine of its ten victories.
Howard is the best team in the conference for most major categories while top-20 nationally in goals against average (0.543) to go along with a top-five placement in save percentage (.891) and shutout percentage (.727).
Goalie Alayah Hightower is the catalyst for the Bison's success as the SWAC Preseason Defensive Player of the Year has contributed seven consecutive shutouts while playing all but four minutes and 20 seconds in the net.
Preseason All-SWAC First Teamer Thalia Boucher has been outstanding for the Bison, tallying a team-high six goals and an assist to top the team with 13 points.
Arianna Morgan is the other Howard player to have double-digit points on the campaign, tying for a club-best three assists as well as four goals to give her 11 total points.
Alcorn has never defeated the Bison, losing all five of its all-time matches since Howard joined the SWAC in 2014.
#FearTheBrave
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