By: Jillian Saftel, News Staff
With just three games left in the regular season, head coach Tracey Leone and the women’s soccer team are hoping for a breakthrough game this weekend after a tough road trip.
“We’ve got to end strong and with great competitive spirit and continue to do the best that we can,” Leone said. “That’s our responsibility and that’s what we’d like to do.”
In the first of two road games last weekend, the Huskies faced the Colonial Athletic Association’s (CAA) 10th-place team, Old Dominion University (ODU).
Old Dominion scored the first goal of the game in the 13th minute, but the Huskies responded later in the first half when junior forward Veronica Napoli set up senior co-captain Kristen Blake, who scored on ODU goalkeeper Brianna Alvarado.
This was Blake’s second goal of the season, and Napoli’s third assist. Napoli is tied for the team lead with sophomore forward Gretta Samuelsdottir in assists, and is two points behind Samuelsdottir’s team-leading 17.
The Lady Monarchs scored again in the second half, taking a 2-1 advantage they were able to hold on to for the rest of the game.
Both Napoli and junior defender Kelly Matthews attempted to respond to ODU’s second goal, but were unsuccessful. Alvarado turned away a shot by Matthews, and Napoli put a shot on net in the 69th minute, but the Monarchs’ goalkeeper was impenetrable.
“We went down a goal, rallied back really well and tied it up, which was great,” Leone said. “The spirit was good. We’re just making a few mistakes that are really being capitalized on and it’s ended up in the back of our net. So that’s been a little bit of our nemesis throughout the season.”
Blake said it’s easy to get frustrated when things aren’t coming together for the team.
“On the field, it seems like we’re trying really hard but it just isn’t pulling together as much as we want it to,” she said. “You can’t blame a certain person or a specific line, it’s a collective team effort.”
The Huskies had a chance for redemption in their second game of the weekend against the CAA’s sixth-place team, William & Mary.
Leone said the squad came out fighting hard and created some good chances.
The game remained scoreless at halftime, and the Huskies’ senior goalkeeper Sarah Fylak had made three saves in the half.
“At halftime it was like, ‘Alright! It’s tight, we’re not coming out from being in a hole.’ And I think that was a little bit of our nemesis in the [ODU] game,” said Leone. “The spirit was really good at William & Mary at halftime, the team was really excited to go back out and see what they could do. I was really proud to coach them because of their competitive spirit.”
Despite their enthusiasm, the Huskies couldn’t contest the game’s only goal, scored by W&M’s Mallory Schaffer early in the second half.
“The sense of intensity that we usually have as a team just really isn’t there anymore,” Blake said. “I’m not sure why but I think that’s kind of what we’ve been struggling with all year, to figure that out. It’s like we know that if we let up a goal, we all just assume that our season’s over, and it’s like that’s it, better luck next time. It’s just frustrating.”
Napoli said she thinks the team’s intensity is still there, but players are just not showing it.
“I think we’re playing nervous because we’ve never been in this position before … Napoli said. “We’re just not used to losing so much.”
For Leone, it comes down to simply scoring goals and stopping the opposing team’s goals from coming in.
“Right now we’re just letting up too many goals,” Leone said. “It’s difficult to score a goal, it’s the hardest thing to do in the game. We just have to do a better job of just staying a little bit tighter defensively so we don’t let up as many goals.”
The Huskies have the homefield advantage in two matches this weekend, one tomorrow at 6 p.m. against the University of North Carolina–Wilmington, and another Sunday at 1 p.m. against Georgia State University.
Despite their seventh-place standing in the CAA, with just three games left in the regular season and only the top four teams going to the CAA Championship, Leone said she believes her players will continue to play their hardest.
“They’re a hardworking group, they’re never going to just die,” she said. “We really need a breakthrough game, and that’s what we’re hoping this weekend will be. We have three more opportunities to see what we can do.”
