The Auburn women's soccer team improved its record to 2-1 with wins against Middle Tennessee State University and Kennesaw State University this weekend.
Auburn beat MTSU 4-1 in Friday's game at the Auburn Soccer Complex.
Junior forward Mary Coffed scored two goals and assisted another.
Coffed's first goal was assisted by freshman forward Tatiana Coleman.
Later in the half, Coffed scored again, splitting a pair of defenders and sliding the ball inside the post just before the 24-minute mark.
She served a corner kick in the last five seconds of the first half to assist junior Julie King's header.
Two days later, Auburn had another big win, this time against KSU.
"We wanted for this game to be a little better organized offensively in the box," said coach Karen Hoppa.
Coleman led the offense in Sunday's game against Kennesaw State with three goals.
"I'm really excited about it because they were my first three goals of my college career," Coleman said. "The first goal was off my left foot, which is not my strong foot, so I was excited about that."
Her first goal came in the sixth minute from an assist by senior midfielder Katy Frierson.
Frierson assisted Coleman's second goal with a short corner kick.
"We have this corner kick we've been working on," Frierson said. "I was just trying to kick it into the frame of the goal, and there was so much chaos going on that hopefully someone would get a touch. Everyone kind of dummied it, and it just went in."
Coleman scored her second goal in the first minute of the second half after a poor clear from KSU's keeper left the ball at her feet.
Coleman's third goal, rounding out her hat trick, was in the 68th minute.
"To see Tatiana score three goals was huge for us," Frierson said.
"I saw the ball and kind of attacked it and placed it right on," Coleman said of her last goal.
Auburn, which managed to shut out KSU, had just eight total shots on goal.
The Tigers' next home game is Sept. 2 against Duke University at 7 p.m.
Duke finished out the 2010 season 11-8-4, almost exactly the same as Auburn's 11-8-2 last year.
Duke is currently one victory ahead of Auburn in the win column.
During the 2011 season, Duke has beaten Army, South Carolina, Houston and Notre Dame, all by a two-point margin.
Auburn lost to Wake Forest 4-1 to begin the season.
However, Hoppa saw an improvement in the Tigers' play between the two games they played this past weekend.
"We wanted to be better defensively," Hoppa said. "I definitely think we achieved that. We were very solid defensively."
After letting in a late goal in Friday's game, she was focused on getting the team to stay strong defensively.
Hoppa said she was pleased with the shutout.
According to Frierson, the Tigers have high hopes for this year.
"We had a good win Friday, but to do what we want to do this year we need to take care of these games," Frierson said.
Hoppa described their plans for further improvement before the game against Duke.
"We've got to be better at our possession," Hoppa said. "Our first half we gave away too many balls, and we've got to be better with our finishing percentages as well."
Coleman described her faith in the team after the shutout Sunday.
"I'm just really confident," Coleman said. "That's the word--confident--in this team."
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