PHILADELPHIA, Penn. – Usually when freshmen arrive on a team with tradition and a storied past it takes them at least a year to adjust to the college game, and then another before they really start to leave their mark on the team. That is the norm, but this year’s Massachusetts women’s soccer team is anything but normal. Five newcomers have come in and helped elevate the Minutewomen to the top of the Atlantic 10 and within shouting distance of their first conference title since 1997.
The Minutewomen went on the road this weekend and came home with a pair of shutout conference victories, an exhausting 1-0 double overtime triumph over St. Joseph’s and a 2-0 win at Temple. As solid as the UMass defense was in recording its fourth and fifth consecutive clean sheets, the real story was the play of the Minutewomen freshmen who tallied all three of the team’s goals on the weekend.
Stephanie Santos, Carly Turman and Erica Wideberg all scored for UMass (10-2, 7-0 A-10) and have been quick to make the jump from high school soccer. They are also quick to praise their fellow classmates.
“Steph has been doing amazing this season, Carly’s been doing really well and Bri [Weymouth] has been awesome on defense,” Wideberg said. “It shows the strength of our class and how much we contribute to the team.”
The Minutewomen pulled out a dramatic 1-0 double overtime victory over St. Joe’s in their first game of the weekend. Santos beat Christy Ganc in the Hawks goal for her seventh goal of the season in the 108th minute. Junior Alexi Rudd hit a through ball that found the streaking Wideberg who proceeded to cut the ball back and play it across the top of the box to Santos, who jinxed past one defender before netting the winner.
UMass had the better of the chances on the evening and were unlucky not to have put at least one past Ganc in regulation. In the 28th minute sophomore Michelle Luttati hit a long square ball to Rudd who unleashed a vicious 35-yard drive that beat Ganc, but hit the underside of the cross bar and was cleared by the Hawk defense. Rudd was unlucky once again in the 73rd when midfielder Martha Conover played her a short free kick and she hit a swerving right-footed shot from 25 yards that Ganc flung herself at and was able to deflect away for a corner.
Despite Rudd’s efforts and those of countless others on both sides, the match remained deadlocked for 90 minutes of regulation and the first 15-minute overtime period. UMass coach Jim Rudy knew that if his team was going to pick up its fifth straight win, he would need to change things up and take a few chances. He decided to go with three up front as opposed to the traditional two, and the chance paid off, with the three forwards linking up to create the winner.
“We were dominating but we weren’t getting in and I wanted to win, I didn’t want to play for a tie,” Rudy said. “I felt we needed an extra forward up there to apply some more pressure so we sent on Alexi [Rudd,] and it worked.
Prior to Santos’ winner, the Minutewomen had a pair of great chances in the opening minutes of the second overtime. Just two minutes in, senior Brooke Bartlett was left open inside the box but her shot caromed of the underside of the crossbar and bounced away from danger. Just a minute later Wideberg hit a speculative chip from about 40 yards out that nearly caught Ganc napping, but she was able to scramble back and palm the ball over the bar for her ninth and final save of the match.
Two days later, the tired Minutewomen were back in action as they headed across Philadelphia for a bruising encounter with Temple. But unlike the city’s nickname, their was no love loss between these two sides as the tackles were flying in fast and furious from both sides, limiting the number of quality chances.
Also limiting the number of chances for the Maroon and White was Temple’s defensive tactics. The Owls dropped nine women behind the ball when UMass pushed forward, leaving just striker Brandi Wright alone up top. Once the Owl defense won the ball it looked to get her the ball on a quick counter attack with numbers coming up in support from the back. This strategy nearly worked nine minutes in when Wright was able to get behind the UMass defense and lay the ball off for Briana Tharp whose shot was parried off the post by UMass keeper Julie Podhrasky before being cleared from danger.
This was one of the few quality chances that the Owls would create in the first half and it only seemed to be a matter of time as to when the Minutewomen would forge in front.
The breakthrough came in the 44th minute when Turman grabbed her third goal and second game-winner of the season off a cross from Bartlett. The chance resembled numerous others on the afternoon, a deep cross from the right flank, but in this case Temple goalkeeper Jackie Mauro could not handle the cross and it hit off the crossbar before falling straight to the feet of Turman who calmly placed the ball into the open net from six yards to give UMass a 1-0 lead. Luttati also assisted on the goal that helped take the wind out of Temple’s sails going into halftime.
“That was a big goal, that would have been huge for them if they had held us 0-0 going into half,” Rudy said. “Their keeper made a few saves and we missed a layup or two. I think 0-0 would have given them confidence.”
The Minutewomen doubled the lead just seven minutes into the second half when Wideberg opened her collegiate goal scoring account. She won the ball on the right flank and was able to beat her defender into the box before unleashing a right-footed shot that got past Mauro and locked up the match for the Minutewomen.
“The past couple games I’ve been thinking too much instead of just playing,” Wideberg said. “In the back of my head I was like, ‘finally’ and it felt awesome. I needed that as a confidence boost.”
Temple frantically pushed forward over the final 20 minutes but could not find a way past Kelly Nigh, who replaced Podhrasky at halftime, and the rest of the UMass defense. Nigh has now not given up a goal since Sept. 16 and the team has gone more than 530 minutes without surrendering a tally.
