Over the weekend, the women’s soccer team held down the fort as many students left campus for fall break. The Bates College Bobcats paid a visit and were quickly turned away, as the Cardinals earned a 2-0 victory. It was the team’s third win of the season and came at critical point, following a number of close, unlucky losses.
Gavi Elkind ’09 played in net the first 61 minutes of the shutout effort, and Andrea Giuliano ’09 came in to snuff out the final push from the Bobcats. Both keepers finished with five saves each. A shutout is a shutout, but the team felt that the performance could have been cleaner. Bates fired off 18 shots in the game, including 10 in the second half.
“It was not our best-played game, but it was nice to feel like we had some karma coming our way for once,” said Marcia Whitehead ’08. “Capitalization in the attacking third was crucial for us, and we were able to play solid defense, although they had a few chances that were closer than we would have liked.”
After a scoreless first half, Marissa Trevisan ’09 put her first goal of the season into the back of net, connecting on a centering pass from Elena Bertocci ’09. Bertocci and teammate Beth Kenworthy ’09 lead the team in assists with two each. The goal set the tone for the rest of the game, putting pressure on the Bobcats to respond.
The Bobcats were unable to muster a response, however, and Sam Blank ’09 closed the door on Bates in the last minutes of the game, securing the 2-0 victory for Wesleyan.
Deep into the season, the Cardinals have a couple players battling minor injuries, but the team is confident it can make the final push for the postseason.
“We have enough depth that we have not been experiencing any serious drops in quality of play,” Whitehead explained.
Unfortunately, the Cardinals struggled in their match-up against Eastern Connecticut State University. ECSU has been red hot, shutting out its last six opponents, including a 3-0 victory over the Cards on Tuesday.
The Cardinals could not recover from a goal scored early in the second half. A ball played through the air from midfield beat the Wesleyan defense, and Giuliano could not stop the oncoming attack. The goal knocked the wind out of the Cardinals’ sails.
“They should not have been the better team, though we allowed them to be,” Whitehead said.
In the coming weeks, Wesleyan will work on not making the same mistakes and practice hard to finish out the season strong.
“We’ll be focused on maintaining 90 minutes of focused and intense play for our game this weekend,” Whitehead said.
Wesleyan is 2-5 in the NESCAC with the playoffs in sight. With two more NESCAC games against Amherst (4-1-1) and Bowdoin (4-3) to play, the Cardinals have the opportunity to pass Connecticut College (2-4) and Middlebury (3-3-1) in the standings.
“Two more NESCAC wins would put us in a good position to make the playoffs,” Whitehead said. “For all of us, and especially us seniors, the NESCAC playoffs is a major goal.”
This weekend Wesleyan plays at Amherst in the first of these two crucial must-win games.
“Going into the Amherst game, we are definitely excited about coming away with an upset,” Whitehead said, “And potentially heading into the last week of the season with our fate in our own hands.”
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