Talia GiorganoThe women’s soccer team gained confidence after playing against Franklin and Marshall, even though it was a loss.
On Thursday, Sept. 22, F&M won in overtime with a score of 2-1 on the Dixon Field.
“I think we did good. They are a 6-0 team so I think we stepped it up and played to our ability,” senior captain and No. 22 Nicole Niedermeier said.
Niedermeier assisted a rebound pass to No. 8 freshman forward Mandy Urquhart.
Urquhart scored the Cavalier’s first goal with eight minutes and 13 seconds left in the first half. F&M’s forward No. 8 Shannon Summers, scored 40 minutes into the second half of the game. A yellow card warning from the referee was issued to junior midfielder Emilie Greto at 18 minutes and 55 seconds left of the second half for overaggressive play.
Ending the game with a tie causes two 10-minute-overtime games and sudden death until either team scores.
In the first overtime played, Summers’ goal defeated the Cavs at 4 minutes and 41 seconds left.
The F&M Diplomats consisted of 39 players compared to the Cavaliers team of 16 players. During the game there were five people on Cabrini’s bench while F&M had 17 fresh, able players on their bench.
Besides the fact that F&M had more players than Cabrini, they also had a Division I goalie come in during the second half of the game. “I think her number one strength was her punting abilities. She could punt about 60 or 70 yards…she gets the ball and launches it over our fullbacks,” Head Coach Ken Prothero said. “We actually expected it so I thought we were well prepared for it.”
All of the players were pleased with the outcome and did not anticipate to hold it that far into the game. “I didn’t expect to hold them as good as we did. I expected to lose honestly,” Christine Kedra, a senior midfielder and captain said. “F&M is one of the strongest teams but we did pretty good.”
“Because we had a tough game against Bryn Mawr, a tough loss, I think that this really lifted our spirits up,” sophomore goalie Lea Conti said.
“We had I think like three or four chances to put the game away,” Prothero said, “so just going to OT with a team like that says a lot about our program and our players.”
When asked what the Lady Cavs could do in the future to beat a team like F&M, the players felt they needed to work on communication between each other. “We have all solid soccer players, so once we learn how to play together, it will work better for the future against F&M,” Niedermeier said.
“I think we need to take more shots, maybe outside the 18 instead of trying to pass so much. Other than that, I think we’re doing pretty good,” Conti said.
The Cavaliers recently have been in four games that have been pushed into overtime. The Sept. 10 game against Marywood resulted in a 2-1 win; the Sept. 14 game against Rutgers-Camden resulted in a 0-1 loss and the Sept. 17 game against Neumann resulted in a 1-0 win, along with their loss to F&M.
“This game is definitely evidence about why Cabrini is so much more successful than the other PAC teams,” Prothero said. “We just put out our best every game. Somebody always steps up.”
The women’s soccer team’s next home game is Saturday, Oct. 8 against Arcadia University at 1 p.m.
