GUELPH, Ont. – It won't go down as the prettiest game of the 2019 season for the Guelph Gryphons women's soccer team. But it was just the result they were looking for. Sunday afternoon in front of a large home crowd at the Gryphon Soccer Complex, the University of Guelph women's soccer team improved to 2-0 on the young 2019 season with a 1-0 victory over the Waterloo Warriors. Third-year defender Samantha Dickson (Ottawa, ON) scored the first goal of her OUA career, taking advantage of a misplayed cross by the Waterloo goalkeeper before finishing off a scramble from point blank range in front of the Warrior net. The goal, which came off of a corner kick in the 51st minute of play, would prove to be the only offence needed on the day for the Gryphons, who took all six points in their opening weekend of league play following a 1-0 victory 24 hours earlier at York.
 
"I thought Waterloo came out and established a real strong attacking game in the first half," said Gryphons head coach Shayne Campbell, the reigning OUA West Coach of the Year. "We had a hard time dealing with the width they were using and it took us a little while to adjust. In the second half, we seemed more settled on the ball and limited our unforced errors in the middle part of the pitch. We've been working really hard on trying to get something out of corner kicks on the offensive side, and it was really nice to get something in there, no matter how it goes in."
 
Moments after the goal from Samantha Dickson, the host Gryphons would be forced to play the majority of the second half with 10 players after veteran midfielder Danielle Sauve received a second yellow card and was shown off with a red.
 
"The red card was a really difficult moment for the team, but I felt the team responded extremely well. I thought the players handled that adversity extremely well."
 
Gryphons third-year keeper Brooke Davidson recorded the clean sheet to earn her second win of the weekend. Davidson faced just a pair of shots on target, compared to nine shots on target by the Gryphons, who improve to 2-0 on the season and will return to action mid-week with a road game at Laurier (Wednesday, Sept. 4).