Returning to the pitch after a week of preparation, the women’s soccer team traveled to Amherst on Saturday looking for its first win against he Lord Jeffs since 1993. The weeklong hiatus from game action gave the Cardinals ample time to focus on their Little Three rival and to perfect the technical skills that would be needed to knock off the Lord Jeffs, ranked 15th nationally. The Lord Jeffs proved to be a challenge, capitalizing on their offensive movement in the first half for a pair of goals that would turn out to be the only scoring of the afternoon. Led by a series of strong crosses and set plays, the Lord Jeffs fired off 19 shots to Wesleyan’s six and made their 2-0 halftime lead stand up to improve to 16-0-1 in their last 17 games against the Cardinals.
The Lord Jeffs scored their first goal of the afternoon in the eighth minute. Junior Jackie Hirsh placed a shot inside the right post, finishing a loose ball that was placed in the center of the box after a long pass. It wasn’t long before Hirsh found the back of the net again in the 27th minute. Handling a cross from the left side, the Amherst striker calmly finished the ball into the back of the net for her second goal of the afternoon. Hirsh was offensively indispensable for the Amherst team on Saturday afternoon, proving her stripes as an upperclassman on a young team still battling the loss of seven players to graduation.
Kate Connolly-Smithwick ’13 played in goal for the entirety of the 90 minutes for the Cardinals. Connolly-Smithwick continued her impressive play while filling in for injured starter Clare Colton ’12, coming up with 11 saves, but the strong shooting of the Amherst attack proved to be too much for the Cardinal defense. Defensively, the Cardinals still miss the presence of Colton, who has been kept off the pitch due to a hand injury. With a hopeful outlook, the Cardinals anticipate her return to the line-up before the close of the season and hope she can be an additional presence during tournament play.
With the loss to Amherst, the Cardinals fall to a regular season record of 7-5-1 and a NESCAC record of 3-5-0. The Cardinals will play their final regular season game at Connecticut College on Friday at 3:00. Wesleyan has already clinched a spot in the NESCAC tournament, and a win in New London would give Wesleyan a winning record for the second straight season and only the seventh in team history; the Cardinals also had back-to-back winning campaigns from 1980-81 and 1994-96.
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