By Alli dadouris ’14
Photo courtesy of goleopards.com
The Lafayette Women’s Soccer Team had an intense week, playing three games against Monmouth, Wagner, and Princeton in preparation for their first Patriot League game next Saturday against Lehigh. Lafayette (3-5-1) lost to Monmouth and Princeton, but was able to salvage the week with a win against Wagner.
Against Monmouth (3-4), the game went scoreless for 25 minutes before Monmouth was able to score their first goal against Lafayette’s All-League goalkeeper, Lauren Smedley ‘13.
Despite a strong second half that featured two close shots on goal from Jill Dozier ‘13 and Nicole Brownell ‘13, Monmouth managed another goal against Smedley and the Lafayette defense to seal the victory. Overall, Monmouth outshot Lafayette with 13 balls on goal.
Two days later and after three straight road games, Lafayette returned to the comfort of home to play Wagner, a game they won 4-0.
“It has been tough to swallow our disappointments,” Smedley said. “We really needed to win the game versus Wagner after a week or so of some tough losses.”
“Winning at home to us is a huge deal,” Dozier said. “We like to defend our home field.” The team came out strong on Sunday, ready for a win.
Three sophomores led the goal scoring for Lafayette against Wagner (3-6). Only 12 minutes into the game, Nicole Lee ‘15 scored the first goal, soon followed by Alyssa Finelli ‘15 and Jaclyn Giordano ‘15. Dozier joined her teammates on the scoreboard with a penalty kick in the last ten minutes of the game.
“Last year we ended up losing to Wagner,” Finelli said. “We were not about to let that happen again.”
Against Princeton (3-3-1) on Wednesday, Lafayette’s streak of eight straight wins at Oaks Stadium came to an end with a 5-2 defeat.
A breakaway goal just four minutes in sparked a dominant first half for Princeton, and a hat trick by Jen Hoy ‘13 sealed it. Even though a Giordano goal put Lafayette on the scoreboard, the game was already out of reach.
Despite the two losses, Head Coach Mick Statham was looking on the bright side. “The player’s quality was good,”Statham said. “The effort, team spirit, and the soccer we played were really encouraging.”
“Although we’ve had some games not go our way, our fight and resilience is always something we pride ourselves on,”Dozier said. That fight and resilience will be relied upon by the team heading into Patriot League play where they will face tough competition on a regular basis, beginning with arch-rival Lehigh.
Lafayette plays again at home this Sunday against NJIT at 1:00 p.m.