Women’s soccer fights back after tough season opener

By ANDRIA THEODOROU

Staff Writer

Starting the season on a weak note, with a 3-0 loss against Gettysburg on Aug. 30, the UMW women’s soccer team’s streak turned around last week with a 3-0 win against North Carolina Wesleyan College on Sept. 18. The wins continued on Sept 14 when the team beat Catholic University 2-0.

In the first half of the NC Wesleyan game, freshman forward position Amanda Krest, scored the first goal. During the second half of the game, sophomore midfielder Lindsey Hendrickson scored a goal assisted by her teammate, senior defender Corinne Carson. Towards the end of the second half, freshman midfielder Macey Wissell scored the final goal, passed to her from teammate and sophomore midfielder, Gracie Williams.

The UMW’s women’s soccer team recent wins came at a good time for the team, which is recovering from their rough start against Gettysburg at the beginning of this season.

“This season we’ve faced the hardest non-conference schedule since I’ve been here, and we battled two of the teams until the last minutes of double overtime and unfortunately it didn’t go our way,” said Carson.

“So, although our record isn’t what we want, we’re proud of how we’ve played and how we’ve adjusted to the changes we faced this season,” continued Carson. “I hope we’re able to achieve a strong conference performance and make it to another CAC championship, but this time with a ring at the end. We beat NC Wesleyan 3-0 this Wednesday and I was very happy to get a solid win and begin to turn our record around.”

Other members of the team were also very proud about their recent victory.

“It was a great game and we all played as a unit and executed well,” said Hannah Nightingale, a junior forward. “We hustled, won 50/50 balls and connected well and because of that, we outplayed NC Wesleyan. We came out slow in the first half, but in the second half, everyone picked up the energy and we secured two goals in the back of the net in the second half.”

Sophomore forward Caroline Ciccone is confident in the team’s abilities despite the tough competition.

“We’ve had a very difficult strength of schedule this season but our team has shown that with a strong incoming class and a good new coach that we stand our ground against the top 25 teams in the nation,” said Ciccone. “Our team is progressing with each game and I hope with that, our record keeps improving.”

The team’s goal this season is to make it to the conference championship and win the title.

“I hope with playing some of the top teams in the country that we will come out strong in the conference and win the conference championship,” said Anna Longacher, junior midfielder. “We needed this win and I am glad we came together and got the job done. The win today made me feel excited for the rest of the season and I can not wait to see what our team will accomplish.”

The women’s soccer head coach, Scott Gerseny, expressed his pride in the team’s recent performance.

“This season has been a lot of change for the players but they have done a great job adapting and learning,” said Gerseny. “We have a much more competitive atmosphere at training and it’s leading to competitive results on the field. Before our game against NC Wesleyan we had played the 13th hardest schedule in the country.  I’m proud of the players for fighting through the changes and going toe-to-toe with some of the best teams in the region…If we keep the scoring mentality over the next couple of games we could get some great results.”