After dropping consecutive matches against NESCAC rivals, the women’s soccer team finally found their footing in a 4-1 romp of non-conference Elms College. With the win, the Cardinals put themselves one victory away from the .500 mark, and with five conference games remaining in the schedule, the team’s playoff hopes are still very much alive.
Wesleyan started its offensive assault early in the match when quad captain Laura Kurash ’13 found the net during the sixth minute of play. After a melee in front of the six-yard box, Kurash blasted her third goal of the year to put Wesleyan up 1-0. Just six minutes later, Kurash’s usual partner in crime, Kerry Doyle ’14, delivered one of her patented heat-seeking corner kicks straight to Cap’n Kurash. Kurash proceeded to deliver her second goal in 12 minutes which put the Cardinals ahead by two goals with more than thirty minutes left in the half.
Despite a comfortable lead over Elms, the Cardinals offense did not stop after two goals. Three minutes into the second half, Kurash delivered an encore performance for the venomous away crowd. For her third and final masterpiece, Kurash crashed the opposing goal and made her way to a ball that had deflected off of the keeper. The quad captain made haste with the ball and powered it to the left side of the net for her third goal of the match. With this goal, Kurash now has five on the year. The hat trick for Kurash is her first since the second game of her freshman year and marks her eighth career multi-goal game. Kurash has 33 scores on her college soccer résumé, 14 of which have been game winners.
The Cardinals added a fourth and final strike in the 65th minute when Doyle decided to get in on the goal-scoring fun. She connected on a swooping strike from the top of the eighteen-yard box for her first goal of the season. Holding down the fort on the opposite side of the field was the goalkeeping tandem of Rachel Hobert ’16 and Jess Tollman ’15. Hobert got her first career start and easily disposed of the Elms’ attack, only making one save within the first forty-five minutes of action. Tollman came in and closed the job in the second half, also tallying one save. However, Tollman lost the shutout in the 80th minute when a lax Cardinal defense allowed an Elms attacker to get off a well-placed shot that made it past the sophomore keeper.
The win on the road was a much-needed shift in momentum for the Cardinals who now return to conference action. The Cards are in dire need of a victory against conference rivals Bates and Colby, whom they will play back-to-back this Saturday and Sunday during their trip to Maine.