Facing a tough midweek test, the women’s soccer team dug too deep a hole to recover from, losing 2-1 to the Rhode Island College Anchorwomen (11-1) Wednesday evening. Facing RIC in the program’s first ever home night game, the Cardinals (4-4, 2-2 NESCAC) came out slowly, surrendering two first half goals before mounting a consistently dangerous attack in the second half.
RIC jumped on the Cardinals early, firing ten shots in the first half. Fourteen minutes in, RIC midfielder Leah Hayes ’08 played a crafty through ball to forward Erika Haaland ’07, who slipped the ball into the right corner for her team-leading tenth goal of the season.
Sensing a chance to put the game away early, the Anchorwomen continued to press as the Cards struggled to find their legs. Lindsay Laurie ’08 put RIC up 2-0 in the 36th minute, heading home a cross from Gina Calenda ’08.
“We started the game pretty flat. We weren’t winning our battles on the field, and it put a lot of pressure on our defense. We really had to pick ourselves up in the second half and raise the intensity level across the board,” said Wesleyan center-mid Sam Blank ’09.
Wesleyan did just that in the second half, playing inspired soccer that created solid scoring chances. The Cards earned a free kick eleven minutes into the half that Beth Kenworthy ’10 sent towards Blank in the RIC box. Blank collected the ball and finished her second goal of the season, cutting the RIC lead to one.
The game opened up offensively for the remainder as the Cards searched for the tying goal while RIC picked up counterattacking opportunities.
Gavi Elkind ’09 entered the goal in the second half for the fourth straight game and made four saves to keep the Cardinals close. Elkind has allowed only one goal in just over 150 minutes of work over four games, collecting 11 saves along the way.
As in the game against Western Connecticut State University last week, the Cards saw their best opportunity to tie the game with a shot off the foot of Marissa Trevisan ’09.
“We really stepped it up in the second half. Sam scored pretty early off a free kick from Beth, and after that we had a lot of quality chances. Once again, we were just unable to finish,” Trevisan said.
The Anchorwomen hung on the rest of the way, earning their eleventh win of the season, a program record.
“This game was a wakeup call for everyone; we’ve won some important matches, but we can’t sit back and be satisfied with that,” Blank said.
The Cards will face another difficult test on the road this weekend when they make the long trip to face NESCAC opponent Colby, the sixth ranked team in the region, on Saturday. Colby currently sits one spot ahead of Wesleyan in the NESCAC standings, sporting a conference record of 2-0-2.
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