Spartans Wound Eagles in OT

BY NICK JACOBS

The University of Mary Washington women’s soccer team managed to string York College of PA through regulation and change before falling in double overtime on Saturday, 2-1.

In their second Capital Athletic Conference bout of the season, the Eagles had a tough time moving the ball downfield, giving their offense little opportunity to put up a single point until the closing minutes of regulation.

With less than a minute left in the second half of play, UMW sophomore Kate Parvin was taken out inside the penalty box, prompting the referee to call for a penalty kick.

After a long and physically demanding game, this last-minute chance gave the Eagles and their fans a little last minute hope.

Junior Hannah Pearson lined up to take the shot and squeezed it past York’s goalie into the upper right corner of the net, earning the Eagles a trip to overtime.

The Eagles fought their way through the first round of overtime, with much of the action taking place around centerfield as both teams fought to get their offenses going.

York College started with the ball at the beginning of the second overtime and within 45 seconds forward Jill Stanley scored her second goal of the afternoon, ending the game.

Head coach Kurt Glaeser has mixed feelings about the game.
“Our defense worked their butts off because they had to,” he said. “I don’t know if we played smart, but we played hard.”

Freshman Kira Lanewala agrees.

“We always work really hard in games, which is something I really love about this team,” she said. “But as we move on through the season, we need to learn how to work smart. I’m pretty confident that as we keep figuring out what we need to do, working smarter will come naturally with it.”

Despite the loss, play between the two teams was evenly matched during the first half as both teams shared possession of the ball and moved their offense into play.

Junior Laura McCarthy was able to shut down York’s offense until the 63rd minute of play. She recorded five saves during regulation time and had one in the first round of overtime.

UMW may have fought through two overtimes, but Pearson was disappointed with the loss.

“We just didn’t come out and perform,” she said. “We had been practicing certain things all week, and we didn’t do the things we did at practice. We weren’t playing by our system.”

The Eagles have five conference matches in a row and will be working hard over the next few weeks in order to secure a spot in the conference championship, which they have not appeared in since 2004.

McCarthy said her team definitely has the potential to get there.
“We definitely played a defensive game on Saturday,” she said. “I do think we are getting better at moving the ball around, we just need more scoring opportunities. In order to make it to the conference championships, we need to capitalize on these scoring opportunities. We were able to do this against Christopher Newport, and I know we can do it again.”

Glaeser agrees.

“I am not too worried about getting a conference playoff berth,” he said. “I am more concerned about playing well enough to get to the point where we’ll make the conference championship again.”
The Eagles, who are now 4-3-1 overall, will face Wesley College at home this Saturday.