By: Jill Saftel, News Staff
The women’s soccer team took its first win in Colonial Athletic Conference (CAA) play last Friday with a 1-0 shutout at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, Va.
But the Huskies also suffered their first loss in conference play last Sunday when they lost to James Madison University (JMU) 3-1 in Harrisonburg, Va.
Leone said she thinks the players need to accept the responsibility to better prepare for away games.
“Except for the second half of the JMU game, we have yet to play on the road like we do at home,” said head coach Tracey Leone. “We’ve tried a lot from the coaching perspective, but psychologically, the players need to do a better job preparing themselves. They need to tap into this reserve that they don’t even know they have and that’s what I think they did in the second half of the JMU game.”
Junior forward Veronica Napoli scored her fifth goal of the season for the Huskies. Napoli fired a shot past VCU goalkeeper Megan Lynch in the 14th minute of play. Sophomore forward Greta Samuelsdottir recorded her second assist of the season with the play.
“Greta and Veronica played really well together,” Leone said. “We scored a really nice goal really early in the game but VCU is a very aggressive team and they’re definitely hard to play on the road.”
Sophomore goalkeeper Michelle Sopko started the game for the Huskies and recorded her fourth shutout of the season with four saves.
The Rams out-shot the Huskies 5-4, and had a 3-2 advantage in shots on goal.
“It’s a difficult place to play,” Leone said. “They have bleachers behind each goal and tons of fans. We can play better than we did in that game.”
Following their victory at VCU, the Huskies headed to JMU in Harrisonburg, Va. Sunday for their second game of conference play.
The team gained an early lead when Napoli scored on JMU goalkeeper Diane Wszalek in the second minute with an assist from Samuelsdottir.
Napoli scored her sixth goal of the year, and she and Samuelsdottir extended their scoring streaks to four games.
In the 17th minute JMU tied the match when defenseman Megan Feesler scored on Sopko, who started the game and recorded five saves.
The Huskies held off the Dukes’ offense through the end of the first half, despite a
12-4 shot advantage for JMU.
In the 48th minute, JMU midfielder Teresa Rynier scored off a penalty kick, giving the Dukes a 2-1 advantage.
The Huskies came back in the second half to out-shoot the Dukes 9-4.
“With the exception of the one goal in the first half, we didn’t really play well until the second half,” Leone said. “We got a little relaxed after scoring the first goal. It was definitely a tale of two halves; in the second half we possessed and defended great. We played to a level we’re capable of in the second half, unfortunately [JMU] scored a few times, but we pushed to try to tie it with every effort.”
Samuelsdottir made two shots late in the second half, both saved by Wszalek. She led the Huskies offense with seven shots, including three on goal. Senior co-captain Kristen Blake also recorded three shots, with one on goal.
Rynier added another goal for JMU in the 88th minute, bringing the final score to 3-1.
The Virginia road trip brought the team’s record to 1-1 in CAA play and 6-3 overall.
The Huskies will face Delaware today at 7 p.m. in their third straight away game. When the teams faced off last year at Parsons Field, the game ended in a 1-1 tie.
Leone said her team needs to get its legs back from traveling over the past weekend.
“It’s a quick turnaround,” Leone said. “We need to get both mentally and physically rejuvenated because Delaware is a really good team. We really need to focus on reaching our potential and playing a full, fought-hard 90 minutes.”
The Huskies will return to Parsons Field Sunday at 1 p.m. to face Drexel University. Leone said that she and her players are excited to return to Parsons for a home game.
