Graduate student women’s soccer player Ellie Fuller won the honors of Peach Belt Conference Player of the Week for her outstanding performance, posting a momentum-building hat-trick for GCSU in the week ending on Oct. 20.
The Alpharetta, Georgia native helped the Bobcats win both contests during the week, their first in Montgomery, Alabama against Auburn University at Montgomery Warhawks 3-0, then finished off the week with a 5-0 win over the Albany State University Golden Rams at home. These two wins extended the Bobcats’ then-unbeaten streak to eight straight games.
As if the hat-trick was not impressive enough, it is worth remembering that Fuller’s season was shortened because of an ACL injury that happened toward the end of the previous season.
“There are only positive thoughts,” Fuller said. “Coming off an injury, it was huge. Being able to get on the score sheet after coming back within the month was great, and being surrounded by my best friends on this team made it even better. It was one of my favorite moments on this team.”
The Bobcats had double-digit shots entering the second half, yet could not put up a goal before halftime in the game against the Golden Rams. It was after a complete lineup switch by head coach Jack Marchant, which included Fuller, that the momentum shifted for the Bobcats.
Fuller knocked in her first goal of the contest on a looping corner kick, sneaking it into the goal for her second goal of the season. Her aforementioned first goal came against Flagler in her first appearance of the season on Sept. 9.
“I love Ellie,” said Lillie Sheffield, a freshman player on the women’s soccer team. “She’s a great role model, someone I’ve looked up to on the team. She’s someone I go to when I want help or someone to talk to. She’s definitely the mother of the team.”
This goal quickly lit up the GCSU offense, as they quickly went back onto the prowl, swerving through the Golden Rams’ defenders and smoothly finding an opening, as freshman forward Brittany Bakke crossed the ball over to her fellow forward in Fuller, allowing her to score her second goal of the contest. Bakke later scored her own goal within the next 10 minutes, coming from a string of assists from Sheffield and Mia Palumbo.
“Yes, she has stepped into a leadership role,” Bakke said. “Especially with my position, too. Having to learn a whole new way of pressing and attacking, and having Ellie in that spot to lead me has been super helpful.”
The Bobcats had four corner kicks in the second half of the contest. Fuller made sure two of them went in, as when the Bobcats had the opportunity for another corner kick at the 64:55 mark in the game, Fuller repeated her first goal of the match, perfectly curving the ball into the net, marking the hat-trick. This was the first hat-trick of Fuller’s illustrious career, and the Bobcats’ first hat-trick of the current season.
The previous hat-trick was from the last season, as then-junior Ali Amrozowicz poked in three goals in a 4-1 victory over the Christian Brothers University Buccaneers in October. The Bobcats finished the contest against the Golden Rams with 34 shots; Fuller contributed only three, but the efficiency of each shot was the key to the hat-trick.
“This is, undoubtedly, the best group of newcomers we have had since I’ve been here, and honestly, since I’ve been at this school,” Fuller said. “Each year you go into the season and you’re told the freshman have to earn their spot, and each one of them has. We’re such a close-knit team that it really doesn’t feel like there’s much of a difference between a grad student and a freshman, which is a huge green flag.”
GCSU women’s soccer finishes its regular season with an early-week non-conference match-up against the Eckerd College Tritons on Tuesday, Nov. 4, at 5 p.m. in Milledgeville, Georgia, as they celebrate Youth Day, before preparing for the Peach Belt Conference Tournament, which begins later that week, with the quarterfinals opening on Saturday, Nov. 8, with the seeding finishing up after the regular season concludes for all teams in the conference on Nov. 5.