George Washington University
<b>Rider</b>
Women's Soccer Downs Rider
9/26/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Sept. 26, 2006
WASHINGTON, DC -In their final non-conference contest of the season, the George Washington women's soccer team defeated Rider 3-1 late Tuesday afternoon, despite being shutout in the second half.
For GW (7-3-0), all of their scoring came in the first 45 minutes, a feat that could be credited to junior Nicole Trickett's near-goal in the early going. "Trickett's shot in the first couple of minutes really opened-up a lot of space for our forwards to create," Head Coach Tanya Vogel said. "Our defense kept us in it at the beginning, and then our forwards took care of the rest."
The first to benefit from Tricketts' efforts was sophomore Meg Pyle. She received a pass from sophomore Stephanie Covello and blasted a shot from just outside the top of the box, bending it from right to left and into the top of the net. It was her team leading fifth goal of the season. Pyle already has tallied the most goals in a season by a Colonial since Sarah Sample netted six in 2004.
The score remained 1-0 until the 31st minute, when freshman Dara Rosen found the back of the net for her first career goal. Less then four minutes later, Rosen was at it again, breaking past the Rider defense on the left side and sending a low flying shot into the right half of the goal. "The freshman on this team are constantly infusing us with energy," said Vogel, speaking not only to Rosen's two goals, but also to the contributions made by the seven newcomers that saw significant action today.
The Colonials took a 3-0 lead into the half, despite being out shot 8-7 in the first period. Surprisingly, Coach Vogel and the GW women were not pleased with their performance in the first half and sought to make improvements coming out of the break. "Our focus was much better in the second half," said Vogel. "At the half, [Assistant Coach Neel Bhattacharjee] and I told the girls what we wanted of them, and they came out and delivered."
The Colonials and Broncs (2-4-2) went back and forth for most of the second half, each team exchanging shots and counters. GW nearly got their fourth goal of the day, but Rider's Erin Mahar made a great save on a bouncing ball that got past keeper Kim Carter. The Broncs did eventually get on the board, when Leslie Amster scored her first goal of the season in the 88th minute, off an assist from Lauren Terzyk.
The Colonials will begin their conference schedule this weekend by traveling to Massachusetts (6-2-0), a team that is currently ranked 6th in the Northeast Region according to SoccerBuzz and 31st in the country in the NSCAA/adidas poll. "We know they're a tough team, but at the same time, we're psyched about having a great test like that right at the beginning," said Vogel. George Washington ends their non-conference schedule with an impressive 7-3-0 record, but that's not how Vogel and the team see it. "As far as we're concerned, we're 0-0 right now, and just getting ready for A-10 play. We hope to still have our best soccer ahead of us."
The Minutewomen just recently had their six game winning streak snapped, falling to Vermont 1-0 in double-overtime. Earlier this month, the GW women defeated that same Vermont team, also in overtime, 2-1.
The game against Massachusetts is scheduled for Friday, 4:00 p.m. in Amherst, MA. They will continue their A-10 play on Sunday, when they travel to Rhode Island for a 1:00 p.m. showdown in Kingston, RI.
