By: Jill Saftel, News Staff
With only five games left of regular season play, the pressure is on for the women’s soccer team, which is seventh out of 12 in the Colonial Athletic Conference (CAA).
“We have critical games on the road coming up and the team really needs to come in excited and ready to play,” head coach Tracey Leone said. “I believe in this team, I always have, we just really need to focus on one game at a time.”
The Huskies squared off against George Mason and Towson in what Leone called “a tough weekend for the team.”
In their Friday night game against George Mason, senior co-captain and defender Tinna Nielsen scored her first career goal in the 16th minute when she took a pass from junior midfielder Erin McGaffigan to bring the score to 1-0.
The Huskies lost their lead when George Mason forward Mary Kate Lowry put one past sophomore goalkeeper Michelle Sopko for her first goal of the season.
Lowry’s teammate Kimmy Moss followed with a shot, raising George Mason’s lead to 2-1.
With five minutes left to play, Mason’s forward and defender Zania Barnum brought the score to 3-1, and despite a 19-9 advantage in shots, the Huskies couldn’t respond.
Northeastern racked up 13 fouls and went offsides seven times throughout the game.
Sophomore forward Gretta Samuelsdottir said the loss was especially tough for the team.
“We tried so hard in Friday’s game, we played with our hearts but it wasn’t enough and that’s the hard part about the sport,” Samuelsdottir said. “But it’s part of playing soccer. We were doing as much as we could but it still wasn’t going with us.”
The team tried to rally for Sunday’s game against Towson, and with a goal in the second minute from Samuelsdottir, the Huskies gained an early lead.
But the lead was short-lived as Tiger defender Samantha Young rifled a shot past senior goalkeeper Sarah Fylak and tied the game five minutes later.
The game was Fylak’s second start of the year, and she recorded five saves.
Towson struck again in the 30th minute, when defender Shawnee Nicholas scored the game-deciding goal off a corner kick.
“It was hard for the team to recover physically and mentally but we really tried to rally for Sunday’s game,” Leone said. “We found ourselves behind the eight ball and chasing the game, which is a tough place to be. We just struggled to maintain that high level of focus we’d had previously.”
The weekend’s two losses brought the Huskies’ record to 2-3-1 in CAA play, and Leone said a couple of injuries caused shifts in their usual lineup.
“We’re at that point in the season where we’re starting to get beat up,” Leone said. “But they’re having two days off and we’re trying to heal up now.”
The team will visit Old Dominion on Friday, and Leone said she thinks the team will be successful once players get their confidence back.
“We create good chances, but we need to get back to finishing up on them,” she said.
In addition to better preparing for road games, Leone said she wants to see an improvement in both individual and team defending.
“At times, the defending is really, really good,” she said. “But it needs to be more consistent.”
Only four out of 12 teams make it into the CAA Championship Tournament, and Leone said it’s essential for the team to play well at home as well as on the road.
After their Friday game at Old Dominion, the Huskies will face sixth place William & Mary in a Sunday matchup.
“We’ve been unlucky, things just haven’t been working with us,” Samuelsdottir said. “It’s the big moments in the games we need to fix, and we know that.”
