Lafayette women’s soccer fell short to Drexel on Sunday, Sept. 29 with a final score of 0-4. The majority of action happened in the second half of Lafayette’s home opener. 

Freshman forward Anna Garcia contributed two of the game’s eight Lafayette shots on goal. Despite the outcome of the game, Garcia’s active offense was crucial for the momentum of the 90-minute competition. 

“This is definitely something we’ve been discussing as a team, just trying to get better offensively and be more dangerous in the red zone,” Garcia said. “I think as a team we know that is where we need to improve on both sides of the ball and we’ve been working hard at practice to get better.” 

After the loss, head coach, Mick Statham, encouraged the team to remain positive. 

“Our coach reminds us to take the lessons from each game, but move forward and focus on the next game as well,” Garcia said. “This is exactly what we will do going into Iona as we want to learn from our past games but be prepared for a new game with determination and excitement.”

Senior midfielder Riley Dowd also had two shots on net.

“It’s really important to stay positive after a loss. There are a lot of lessons that we need to take from the game and things we have to continue to work on to improve, but we cannot dwell on all of the negatives,” Dowd said.

Sophomore goalkeeper Lindsay Dewar contributed five saves in the competition.

“I thought the loss against Drexel was tough, but there were a lot of topics we have been working on in training that we executed well in the first half. Obviously the second half didn’t go as we wanted, but the special thing about this team is our resilience and desire to never give up,” Dewar said.

The Dragons scored four goals in the second half and led in shots.

“With all of the injuries we’ve had on the team, it’s been more important than ever to be there for one another and support each other through this time. We all know it will perform better as people are becoming healthy again, but for now we are keeping our focus,” Dewar said.

Lafayette women’s soccer stands at 0-3 record, but hasn’t yet faced in-conference competition yet. 

“Something we are working on improving is our finishing in the final third area, something that is extremely hard to do but necessary to win,” Dowd said.

Correction 9/8/21: This article previously had the incorrect spelling for coach Statham.