It was a defensive battle, as the Massachusetts women’s soccer team scored a late goal avoiding overtime and recording the win. La Salle, having many opportunities, was unable to score.
In the 90th minute, UMass’ (2-2-1, 1-0-1 Atlantic 10) Hannah Peric put the ball in the back of the net, preventing the game from going to overtime and giving the Minutewomen the lead. The Explorer’s (3-1-0, 0-1-0 A-10) tried to quickly charge down field, but time ran out.
“They battled like crazy today. It was awesome to see,” said UMass head coach Jason Dowiak. “That was some of the best possession style soccer that I’ve seen our team play, certainly this year.”
In the 29th minute, a foul was called against Minutewoman Dani Sclafani and the Explorers were awarded a penalty kick. La Salle’s Emily Banashefski took the shot, but a diving save from Alyssa Chase prevented the goal and the game remained scoreless.
Chase, who split time in the game against Rhode Island with Bella Mendoza, played the full 90 minutes and recorded four saves. La Salle outshot UMass in the game, 19-3, but a strong defensive performance prevented any goals. This is the third shutout this season for the Minutewomen.
“We were able to deal with that relentless pressure by just really keeping good possession and moving off the ball,” Dowiak said. “Lindsay Wolf and Hannah Peric were the two more defensive center mids and they were very good with the ball but they also really delt with what La Salle was throwing at us.”
The Explorers almost took the lead in the second half with a few chances. In the 70th minute, La Salle’s Alyssa Van Heurck took a shot that bounced off the crossbar. A few minutes later, they followed up with pressure in the box that resulted in two shots, one saved by a UMass defender and ultimately grabbed by Chase.
“I couldn’t be more proud of how hard the girls battled and the leadership from Dani Sclafani at center back and Fiona Kane at center back,” Dowiak said. “We’ve got a different group of players and the goals are coming from some different places which is great to see.”
The game also saw more injuries for the Minutewomen. Jenny Hipp was tackled during the first half and was not able to return. Ava Jouvenel, who had been battling an ankle sprain all week, was able to play, but injured the other ankle during the game.
Both Olivia Gouldsbury and Fatou Berry were also sidelined with injuries. Gouldsbury pulled her quad and has begun to train in the last few days but was not ready to return. Berry has not played in a week, having injured her hamstring early in the game against UMass Lowell.
“I just want to get everybody healthy,” Dowiak said. “Getting our numbers back into a place where we have some more options.”
The Minutewomen are able to rest this week and will continue A-10 play against Fordham. The game is set to begin at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
Sophie Weller can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @SophieeWellerr.
