By: Jill Saftel, News Staff
In their first home match in conference play, the women’s soccer team accomplished a goal it had been working towards since the beginning of the season: Playing a full, hard-fought game.
the Huskies tied conference foe Drexel 1-1, despite going into two periods of extra time last Sunday.
“We can take a lot away from this game,” head coach Tracey Leone said. “It was really [110] minutes of great effort, great heart and great soccer.”
Coming off a 3-2 victory at Delaware Friday, in which sophomore defender Marcela Bedoya scored her first two career goals, the Huskies faced the Drexel Dragons in their first appearance at Parsons Field in three games.
Drexel came into the game off a three-game losing streak, but Leone said she and her team didn’t take note of the Dragons’ record.
“We just wanted to come, play hard and play well at home, and I think we did that,” Leone said. “This conference is full of really tough, inspired, hardworking teams and certainly Drexel is that, and I feel like we’re that way as well. We are just trying to take one game at a time and give our best effort and best performance in every game that’s ahead of us.”
Senior co-captain and midfielder Kristen Blake said her teammates didn’t take Drexel’s three game losing streak lightly.
“We just prepare like it’s UNC [University of North Carolina], BC [Boston College], or the best team in the country,” Blake said.
The teams played through the first half without scoring, though the Huskies and the Dragons had multiple chances. The Huskies out-shot the Dragons 14-7 in the first half.
The first opportunity came in the eighth minute of play when Drexel forward Jenna Lindsay fired a shot at sophomore goalkeeper Michelle Sopko, who dove to make the save. Sopko recorded a career-high 11 saves in the match.
In the 18th minute, both sophomore forward Greta Samuelsdottir and junior forward Veronica Napoli blasted shots at Drexel’s goalkeeper Nicole Sinclair, but couldn’t reach the back of the net.
Early in the second half, Samuelsdottir scored her sixth goal of the season with an assist from junior defender Kelly Matthews.
The Northeastern lead was short-lived however, as Drexel forward Jess Lowinger scored on Sopko just three minutes after Samuelsdottir’s goal.
The teams then battled it out in two overtimes, and despite a free kick from Napoli, were unable to break the tie.
Both teams received yellow cards and players were visibly unhappy about several calls made by the referees, but Leone said she just considers it an element of the game.
“It’s part of the whole experience and there’s nothing we can do to control that,” Leone said. “I was really proud of how our players dealt with that in terms of just staying focused on the task at hand, staying focused on the game, because that’s what’s going to help you be successful.”
Blake said despite feeling frustrated on the field, she can’t blame anything on the refereeing.
“The refs don’t score the goals, and they don’t let the goals in,” she said.
Even without the win, Blake said she was happy with the way the Huskies played.
“I think this is kind of the first game in a couple weeks where we played a full 90 [minutes], I mean today we played 110 minutes but we played them all hard,” Blake said. “It’s definitely something we can carry on to our next game and especially when we’re on the road.
Leone agreed, and said she “loved [the team’s] effort the entire game.”
“I think we kept the ball really well and created some really, really good chances,” Leone said. “At half time we said, ‘We’re playing well, we just don’t have the goal to show for it.’ In terms of the effort and the chances and the defending, it was all very good.”
With their win at Delaware and draw on Sunday, Northeastern moves to 7-3-1 for the season and 2-1-1 in Colonial Athletic Association play.
The Huskies will face George Mason tomorrow at Parsons Field at 6 p.m.
