The women’s soccer team looks to bounce back from last Saturday’s loss to Yale when it attends the UVM Invitational in Burlington, VT. The Red (4-2, 1-2) will face Vermont (2-7) today for an afternoon contest before closing out the weekend against Marist (1-7) on Sunday afternoon.
The booters faced a tough Yale squad last weekend and were shutout for the first time this season. The Bulldogs played a very quick and physical game on offense, netting their first goal 25 minutes into the first half. Yale then added a second tally five minutes into the second stanza to seal the victory.
The Red was unable to generate many scoring chances and was outshot by the Bulldogs 20-11. Sophomore keeper Katie Thomas was replaced towards the end of the game by senior Kristin Lotito, who recorded two saves in her 20 minutes on the field.
“Our team defending needed to improve. We came to the realization that some things weren’t working,” commented head coach Berhane Andeberhan. “We also need to work on controlling the speed of the game, something which Yale was able to do against us.”
Vermont is coming off a win in its America East opener against Albany, in which freshman Jamie Koehnlein netted her fourth goal of the season in the 1-0 victory for the Catamounts. She was later named America East Rookie of the Week, and has recorded a point in five of the Catamounts’ games this season. Before the win, Vermont had lost it three previous games.
The Red last faced Vermont in 2000 and came away with a 5-1 victory in the first round of the Harvard Classic. Cornell leads the all-time series 3-1.
Marist has been lacking in offense all season. The Red Foxes have been shutout for six straight games and scored only one goal during the month of September. In its most recent contest, Marist suffered a 4-0 loss at the hands of Army. Its only win of the season came in the opener against Long Island University. Last season, the Red Foxes captured the MAAC regular season title with an 8-1 conference record and advanced to the finals of the MAAC tournament. Marist will begin its conference schedule Oct. 11 against Iona.
The Red will need to reestablish its offensive prowess during the weekend and gain momentum going into the remainder of the Ivy season. The booters have scored seven goals on the season, which ties them with Columbia for the least goals scored in the Ivy League. But they have only allowed 5 goals, third best in the league.
“We want to continue to improve our performance. I expect two good games from our team,” remarked Andeberhan.
Injuries have plagued the Red during the past few games. Junior back Karne Hukee has an ankle injury and did not play in last Wednesday’s game against Lafayette. She started in Saturday’s game against Yale but has since bruised her leg. Andeberhan is optimistic about her availability this weekend. Freshman back Phela Townsend has a shoulder injury that will require surgery after the season is over, but she will play this weekend.
The Red returns to Berman Field next Wednesday for an evening match against Bucknell, and then heads out to Cambridge for the third Ivy match of the season against Harvard next Saturday.
Archived article by Jonathan Auerbach