Ankur Neupane/Contributing Photographer
After getting out to a 1-0 lead at home against Bates on Saturday, Sept. 21, the women’s soccer team couldn’t quite hold on for the victory, as Wesleyan finally tied 1-1 after double overtime.
Sarah Sylla ’17 scored the lone goal for the Cardinals, while Katy Hardt ’15 got the assist and goalkeeper Jessica Tollman ’15 made an impressive twelve saves in the contest. Wesleyan is still looking for its first win of the season, sporting a 0-2-2 record through four games.
The Cardinals had beaten Bates in each of their past four meetings, and, after Sylla’s goal in the first half, it looked as though they were going to make it five. However, the Bobcats were able to outshoot Wes 25-12 and put thirteen shots on goal, one of which snuck past Tollman off a corner kick in the 70th minute.
“We were pretty disappointed with the result,” said captain Kerry Doyle ’14. “Bates is a team that we typically beat and we sort of expect to beat, and for that reason, a tie wasn’t really what we were looking for.”
After the Cardinals earned a corner kick in the 38th minute, Hardt sent a perfectly placed cross into the box, where the ball was caught in a short scramble before Sylla found the left side of the net open for the first goal of her career.
The assist from Hardt was her first of the year, and Wesleyan’s first assist of the 2013 season. The goal was the first for the Cards since their season opener on Sept. 7 at Bowdoin. Bates controlled possession for most of Saturday’s game, as the Wesleyan offense continued to struggle.
“Our team is just having a little bit of trouble connecting and keeping the ball as much as we would like,” Doyle said. “[Possession] has sort of been our downfall because if you don’t have the ball, it’s pretty hard to score.”
Doyle also said that during the past week of practice, the team has been putting an emphasis on the offensive side of the ball, specifically on different types of runs from forwards and where the ball should be placed in the midfield.
“I do think that there was a bit of an improvement in this game,” Doyle noted. “We got a few more chances than we had been getting, but again, not enough to put the game away.”
The Cardinal offense has also been working on getting a good first touch; Doyle feels that this has been perhaps the most important issue this season.
“You can’t do anything with the ball if you have a bad first touch,” she said. “You either give it away, or you put yourself in a position with the ball where you can’t do what you would like to.”
Playing with a strained quad muscle, Tollman was certainly a bright spot in Saturday’s game. After a couple of nice saves in regulation, Tollman made what might have been the play of the game in the second overtime, as she made a leaping, diving stop on a Bates shot that would have won the game for the Bobcats.
After a broken finger sidelined goalkeeper Rachel Hobert ’16 for what looks to be at least another month, Grace Bomann ’14 returned to the roster as a backup goalie for the Cardinals. Bomann hasn’t played since her sophomore year, but Doyle praised her work ethic and said that she expects Bomann to be an effective option in goal going forward.
The Cardinals play their next game at home against Tufts in another conference matchup on Tuesday, Sept. 24. The Jumbos are currently 2-2-0 on the season, with a 1-1 record in conference play. With a day of rest on Sunday, the team has an unusually short time between games, which can be difficult to overcome.
“It’s tough when you go from Saturday to a Tuesday game because there’s only one practice [in between],” Doyle said. “Right now, our game plan moving forward is to keep the ball as much as possible. If we can keep possession of the ball, then hopefully everything else will work itself out.”