Looking to bounce back from his team’s loss to Dayton on Friday, Massachusetts women’s soccer coach Ed Matz highlighted Sunday’s game against Saint Louis as an important date for his club.
“I think we need to come out on Sunday against Saint Louis, and secure three points (a win),” Matz said before the contest. “It’s still pretty early on in the season, but we need to go out and get points, and in the very worst get a draw.”
Matz got at least part of his wish as UMass played the Billikens to a 1-1 draw in double overtime.
The Minutewomen (5-7-2, 1-2-1 Atlantic 10) managed to take the lead in the game right out of the gate in the 13th minute with a goal from freshman midfielder Julia Weithofer, her first of the season.
While this early success looked promising for the Minutwomen, the Bilikens (4-9-1, 3-1-1 A-10) found their way back into the game with a goal less than nine minutes later, beating UMass goalkeeper Danielle Kriscenski on a header off a corner kick.
Defensive play followed, as neither team found a way to take control of the game with a goal. Through two overtimes, both teams had limited offensive chances, as a total of only five shots were taken in the periods.
Dayton tops UMass
After losing its previous game to Virginia Commonwealth in double overtime, UMass could not rebound, falling 1-0 to conference foe Dayton on Friday.
This loss marked a two-game losing streak for the Minutewomen, their first losing streak since opening the season with three straight losses.
Once again, UMass’ defense looked to be in complete control until the Flyers (9-4-1, 4-0-0) scored the lone goal of the game early in the second half. The goal came off of a ball inside the box which beat Kriscenski, who had come off her line and out of the net. Instead, she couldn’t come up with it and Stephanie Emery scored the goal on an empty net. While the move Kriscenski made was questionable, Matz feels that it was a difficult play to defend.
“I think it was a tough decision on her part,” Matz said. “I’ll have to look at the tape but it was just a play where we got exposed a little bit. Dayton is just a good team and they capitalized.”
Although the score says otherwise, there was plenty of back and forth play in the game on Friday and no team really seemed to take over the match other than the goal Dayton scored. While the loss is disappointing, Matz was satisfied with his team’s play.
“Dayton just has a lot of fire power up top,” he said “I thought our defense did a great job, and I think it was another great effort by us and unfortunately it is another losing situation.”
Despite losing the game and getting shut out in the loss, senior co-captain Lauren Skesavage believes the Minutewomen could compete with Dayton, a favorite to win the conference.
“Other than (the goal), I think it was evenly matched,” Skesavage said. “I think for a big part of the game we dominated more than they did.
“I think we need to come out against a team that is not as good as these teams (VCU and Dayton), and play like we did,” she continued. “They are probably two of the best teams in the conference and when we play against a team that isn’t as good as them we need to continue to play this well.”
Tom Mulherin can be reached at [email protected].
