By Aren LeBren, News Correspondent
The women’s soccer team dropped to 1-5 on the season after suffering a 3-1 loss Sunday afternoon to the University of Dayton.
At 14:40 in the first half, sophomore forward Lahaina Zoller lofted a shot over the outstretched hands of Flyers’ junior goalkeeper Jordin Melchert into the left corner of the net. This marked the sophomore’s first goal of the season and allowed Northeastern to jump out to an early lead, but it didn’t last as the Flyers scored three unanswered goals to secure the victory.
“I think we started out very well,” head coach Tracey Leone said. “Lahaina’s playing great. She did well for us, she did really well. She’s really gaining her confidence, and she has been so coachable.”
The Huskies came off the bench to an aggressive start in which they held the majority of possession in the midfield for the first 20 minutes of play. Zoller’s goal came early in the 15th minute off an assist by freshman forward Emily Nasuti.
“We did a great job of feeding off each other’s energy early on,” Zoller said. “Something we definitely can improve on is obviously maintaining that consistent level of energy throughout the entire game.”
The Flyers equalized with a goal by junior midfielder Stephanie Emery during a scramble following a corner kick in the 25th minute. The score at halftime remained knotted up at on a goal apiece.
Dayton, the 2011 A-10 champion, came out of the break strongly,and knocked on the door several times. But sophomore keeper Paige Burnett kept the Flyers at bay, seeing 12 shots in the second half and finishing the game with eight saves, four below her career high set during the previous game against Boston College.
Her work in net was highlighted by a diving stop to prevent Dayton’s freshman forward Kelsey Smigel from scoring in a one-on-one situation. But junior midfielder Juliana Libertin finally broke the tie on a penalty kick in the 76th minute.
The Huskies were not without opportunities to tie the game. Junior midfielder Hanna Terry had a high-quality strike toward the goal that became one of Melchert’s five saves on the afternoon.
“It’s always tough to lose a game, and of course to lose it on a [penalty kick] is frustrating,” Leone said.
With two seconds left on the clock, Dayton’s senior forward Colleen Williams knocked in a goal off an assist by senior defender Alysha Mallon to ice the game, 3-1.
“We didn’t finish it to the end and that was frustrating, really frustrating. We just didn’t finish out the last five seconds of the game,” Leone said. “We gotta finish the whole game. We have to stop giving up goals … at the same time we have to start capitalizing on some opportunities.”
The Huskies will take on the Brown University Bears (3-1) tonight at 6 p.m. at Parsons Field.
