In one of its final bids to clinch a playoff berth, the women’s soccer team (7-7-1 overall, 3-5-0 Patriot League) traveled to Bucknell last Saturday to face off against the Bison (10-3-4 overall, 4-1-3 Patriot League) where it suffered a 2-0 loss. The Leopards then traveled to Annapolis to face last-ranked Navy (9-7-3 overall, 3-6 Patriot League) on Wednesday night in their final regular season match, failing to come back from a second-minute goal and falling 1-0 to the Midshipmen.
Though the Leopards’ defense held out for the first half of the game against Bucknell, maintaining a 0-0 score, the second half of the game resulted in two goals for the Bison with the Leopards’ offense coming up empty.
“I thought in the first half we did a really good job of slowing down their attack and keeping possession,” senior goalkeeper Lindsay Dewar said. “We wanted to be able to handle their quick attacks but also capitalize on their mistakes.”
Entering the second half with no goals from either side, Dewar thought that the Leopards were successful in their attempt to keep Bucknell in front and not allow them to get any through balls behind that could lead to a dangerous chance.
“I thought the execution of a lot of things we specifically wanted to focus on was done very well,” Dewar said.
At the end of the first half, Lafayette had four shots, while Bucknell had seven. However, Dewar only had to make one save in the first period. She finished the game with seven saves.
Six minutes into the second half, the Lafayette defense was not able to fend off Bucknell when the team sent a cross into the box that set up a short-range header that Dewar was unable to block.
The Leopards were able to keep the one goal margin until the 88th minute, when the ball was taken from Lafayette’s back line and shot straight into the back of the net.
“I think we had a few lapses where we didn’t maintain possession and we allowed Bucknell a couple of good opportunities that they capitalized on,” junior midfielder Michaela Salvati said. “We, on the other hand, didn’t capitalize on our chances.”
The Leopards then traveled to Annapolis on Wednesday night to face the last-ranked Midshipmen in a last-ditch effort to get three points and make the six-team Patriot League playoffs. If they had won, they would have needed American to lose to Loyola in order to make the cut for the playoffs.
However, the Midshipmen quickly dampened the Leopards’ hopes by scoring an early second minute goal off a throw-in. Navy continued to outshoot the Leopards 24-17 and the score remained at 1-0 for the rest of the match.
After a strong start to the season, the Leopards failed to clinch a spot in the playoffs. This marks the fourth straight season in which the Maroon and White have fallen short of the postseason.
