Photo by Jake McNeill: Southwest Minnesota State forward Virginia Pruitt reacts after scoring a goal during a womens soccer scrimmage against Shattuck – St. Mary’s U19 at Mattke Field in Marshall on Friday. Pruitt scored two goals and assisted another in the Mustangs’ non-conference match against Dakota State on Sunday, leading the Mustangs to a 6-0 win and earning the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference’s Offensive Player of the Week award.

MARSHALL — In her first regulation match as a Mustang, Southwest Minnesota State freshman forward Virginia Pruitt scored two goals and assisted another to lead the Mustangs to a 6-0 non-conference win over Dakota State (S.D.) on Sunday. Her performance in the match earned her the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference’s Offensive Player of the Week award, making her the first Mustang to earn a Player of the Week award since 2023.

“We’ve been talking a lot about crashing the box… and our forwards and our midfielders have been working on getting in the box off crosses so we can get those opportunities,” Pruitt said. “I think today, our goal was to prove that we’ve been working on that and prioritizing that. I think Jada [Backes] and Brooke [Wetterstrom] were doing a great job getting the balls in, and all of our forwards and midfielders were doing a great job really wanting it, and we got there understanding what the keeper was going to do and being able to follow and finish those balls.”

Pruitt scored the game’s go-ahead goal in the 17th minute, tapping in a feed from Mercy Godrey just ahead of the goalline.

Five minutes later, Lenee Chavez found Pruitt streaking downfield with a pass from near midfield. Pruitt caught up to the ball about 20 yards out from the goal and, in one swift motion, chipped it over the head of the charging goalkeeper for a 3-0 Mustang lead.

Pruitt attributed her immediate impact as a freshman to the welcoming nature of the team, citing that the upperclassmen want the freshmen to succeed and eliminating any sense of a feeling of a class divide.

“I think we all have a great understanding of community between us,” Pruitt said of the team’s six freshmen. “We all live in the same dorm, so it makes it easy. We spend a lot of time together, and then when we get out on the field, we just want to perform for each other and have success for each other.”

In between Pruitt’s pair of goals, Godfrey scored one of her own. Breanna Clemens intercepted a Dakota State pass and Godfrey fired off the one-timer from 20 yards out to double SMSU’s lead in the 20th minute.

SMSU had some preseason struggles in exhibition matches, dropping to Division I South Dakota State and Morningside (Iowa), but was as sharp as can be for Monday’s regular-season debut. SMSU head coach Clay Glasgow attributed the execution to the team’s mentality.

“I give them [the players] credit in the sense of maintaining the intensity throughout the 90 minutes of the game. That’s really hard to do, especially when you’re up four or five goals,” Glasgow said. “I don’t think there was a moment when I felt like the intensity wasn’t 100%. The result, I think, really magnifies the fact that, for the past three weeks, this team has been putting in a lot of work. I hope that this game showed the work they’ve been putting in.”

Senior Brooke Wetterstrom scored a pair of goals for the Mustangs in a span of just over three minutes in the second half. Her first came unassisted, gathering the ball after Dakota State deflected a corner kick and sending it into the lower right side of the net in the 55th minute. Shortly thereafter, Pruitt assisted Wetterstrom’s long shot from across the box into the back of the net for a 6-0 SMSU advantage.

“When you talk about defense, you mostly think about the center backs and defenders, but our philosophy is that we want our forwards to win the ball in the midfield before it gets to the back,” Glasgow said. “We take pride in that. Last week, I was joking in practice that normally when the forwards and mids score, everybody gets excited, and I was like ‘When you stop a shot, when you stop a goal, you should be excited too.’ So we take pride in our ability to defend or deny the other team from scoring.”

Freshman Kennady Krebs posted her first official clean sheet for the Mustangs. The defense helped her stay out of trouble, as she faced two shots on the day, neither of which were on target.

Kylie Brazil also scored an unassisted goal in the 34th minute, giving the Mustangs a 4-0 lead heading into halftime.

SMSU, now 1-0 on the season, hosts Upper Iowa on Friday at 3 p.m. for its next match before going on the road to Fort Hays State (Kan.) on Sunday at noon.

Glasgow described both of the Mustangs’ upcoming opponents as strong, well-coached programs, and said SMSU will review tape and do what they can to get better and sharpen up defensively ahead of those matchups.