The Cavaliers dominated from the start and never looked back as they cruised to their first victory of the season. They scored a season high 16 goals and held the Notre Dame of Maryland Gators to only two. Sophomore attacker Sasha Wozniak led the Cavs with four goals on five shots, two assists and one turnover caused.
“The team came together as a whole which helps open up the whole field and just everybody working well together really opens up my chance to score goals, so I think everyone just working so well together really made that happen,” Wozniak said.
“I think the whole team looked great, we worked well together, we had great transitions, I just think it looked great all together,” Wozniak said.
Junior midfielder Jess Breuning scored the first goal of the game 11 seconds in. “Once someone gets the first goal of the game, everyone is ready to go from there and start scoring,” Breuning said. “I was able to get a couple one on ones. I had a great pass from Jenn Robinson, that just opened up the shooting lane for me.”
Cabrini caused 10 of Notre Dame’s 20 turnovers to only their 15, with Breuning leading the way with two turnovers caused. Eight Cabrini players notched one turnover each. Cabrini also won on draw controls 14-5. They played two goalkeepers, junior Megan Barlow and freshman Devon Scharf. Megan Barlow got the win and neither recorded a save. Both Barlow and Scharf allowed a goal each.
“The key to doing that was just staying in our zone defense and working together and keeping are form,” Breuning said. “Everyone looked a little more confident and ready to play.”
Four different Cavaliers scored their first goals of the season versus the Gators. Freshman midfielder/defender Emma Rodner-Timms, sophomore midfielders Emily Crouse and Gabby Lee and Junior attacker Jennifer Robinson all scored for the first time the third game in. Lee and Robinson both pitched in with two goals while Crouse and Rodner-Timms each had one.
“Today is more about getting everybody to get playing time and get opportunities,” head coach Jackie Neary said. “It is one of those games, that I know it is a smaller school than us so historically we know we are going to be in control of this game.”
“So I was just looking for girls to execute correctly,” Neary said. “The good thing is there were certain girls that scored today that haven’t scored, so it is a good opportunity to gain confidence.”
“I think our goalies made a couple of good stops, I am impressed with the fact that we set out to do a couple things correctly and we did it,” Neary said. “We are really working towards our games coming up. That is what we are looking at.”
Neary is glad to get their first win, but knows there is still work to be done.
“There was still some poor shot selections,” Neary said. “We’re going to work on that tomorrow at practice but also ground balls, that’s always key, winning ground balls.”
