Playing against the backdrop of a cloudless late-summer sky, the women’s soccer team put together a solid effort on both ends of the field against the Pioneers of Smith College. Unfortunately, in part due to a fluke goal within the match’s first minute of play, the team lost by a score of 2-1. The setback leaves the Cards at 1-4 (0-2 NESCAC) as they prepare for a string of conference matches.
Smith struck in the very first minute of action, as Katie Kurek beat Kelly McFarling ’05 to her left. Immediately following the score, both the crowd and Wes coach Eva Bergsten-Meredith were complaining of offsides, a call the referees failed to make.
“We just got unlucky on that one,” said defender and co-captain Amanda Binns ’05.
“That’s one of the risks you take when you play the zonal defense,” Bergsten-Meredith added. “You know how you hesitate for a second? They took advantage of that and got in front of us.”
Though neither side found the back of the net for the remainder of the half, both teams had plenty of opportunities. Over the next 10 minutes, the Pioneers were inches away from pay-dirt only to have the Cardinals dig in and deflect the ball away from McFarling, who was battling with the sun in her eyes in the first half.
In the 10th minute, the Birds’ Nicky Gray ’08 had a near breakaway going, but Smith’s Johanna Perez tackled her to slow the advance and Gray missed wide right seconds later. The Pioneers had a similar situation brewing later in the half, but Jaime Wendel ’07 applied a perfect tackle to take possession away and save the Red and Black from a 2-0 deficit. Throughout the game, McFarling made numerous diving stops, the most spectacular of which came in the nineteenth minute.
During the first half, Corinne Case ’05 had several chances to even the score, but only one came close. Had the ball not been slightly deflected wide by the Smith net-minder she would have succeeded, but the Cardinals came into the half trailing by a goal.
The defensive chess match continued well into the second half, as McFarling made yet another diving save, one of four on the day. Then in the 49th minute, Natalie Cohen ’06 was flattened by Smith’s Kendra Olivieri, meriting the forward a penalty shot. She buried it to knot the score at one, but a minute later, Kurek found the net to take the lead back for the Pioneers.
The rest of the game consisted of Cardinal opportunities that failed to come to fruition. During one 11 minute span, the Red and Black attempted four corner kicks, all of which were deflected away from the Smith goal. Despite increased pressure at the end of the game, the Cards were unable to turn opportunities into goals, and fell 2-1.
“We finally played a 90 minute game,” Binns said.
Other than the fluke goal, Bergsten-Meredith seemed rather pleased with the overall result.
“We possessed the ball well today,” she said. “Additionally, in the past, we’ve had days in which just the offense or just the defense was playing well. We’ve somewhat pieced it together now.”
They will need to have the team completely pieced together Saturday when they travel north to take on the undefeated Middlebury Panthers (4-0), a contest that will start a grueling stretch in which the Cards play six of their next seven games away from Middletown, five of them against NESCAC opponents.
Leave a Reply