Wake Forest women’s soccer returns to Winston-Salem after their first road trip of the year with two, two-goal victories. The Demon Deacons beat the Purdue Boilermakers on Sunday, Aug. 27 in Indiana, returned to campus for the first week of classes and then flew down to Alabama to defeat the Auburn Tigers on Thursday, Aug. 31. 

Despite being outshot both by Purdue (12-10) and Auburn (13-5), the Demon Deacons were able to make their limited opportunities count. Wake Forest won 2-0 in both of their matches.

Against Auburn, goalkeeper Madison Howard and the rest of the Wake Forest defense were tested early, as the Tigers attempted four shots in the first minute-and-a-half of game time but weren’t able to pounce on an early lead. 

Neither team would score until the 41st minute, when Auburn relinquished a goal forced by Wake Forest’s defensive pressure. Shortly after the halftime break, the Wake Forest offense would finally score with an unassisted shot through the right side from sophomore forward Alex Wood. 

The rest of the match was a stalemate — and fairly even-sided — with Wake Forest narrowly winning the possession split at 54%. The Demon Deacons only attempted one corner kick, and only four players attempted a shot. 

Against Purdue, the Wake Forest offense was much more potent as sophomore midfielder Carly Wilson and junior forward Emily Murphy were able to score for the visiting team. Wilson’s goal was the first of her Wake Forest career and Nikayla Small’s third assist of the season. 

Murphy scored her second goal in two games on a penalty kick after Small was fouled inside the box. The match was fairly physical, and both teams were issued three yellow cards. 

Howard and freshman Valentina Amaral combined for four saves on the day and kept the Big 10’s best-scoring team scoreless.

Wake Forest is now 4-0-1 on the season and is 18-0-3 in their last 21 non-conference matches spanning back to 2019. Head coach Tony da Luz thought the Purdue win was their “most complete performance of the season” but also believes that the best is yet to come.

“We are making steady progress each game,” da Luz said after the Auburn win. “I like the direction we are headed.”

Wake Forest will play the Iona Gaels — who lost 8-0 against Purdue — at Spry Stadium on Sunday, Sept. 3. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.