CUA Women’s Soccer Stays Hot -

By Jimmy Cassidy

With two more impressive victories last week, the women’s soccer team at the Catholic University of America has moved into first place of the Landmark Conference. On Wednesday, October 14th, the Cardinals defeated Goucher College at home, 5-1. Then on Saturday the 17th, they knocked off rival University of Scranton Royals, 3-2 in double overtime. The team’s record now stands at 12-2 overall with a 5-0 conference mark. The winning streak is now up to seven games, and it’s a run that the group hopes to continue into the postseason.

A look at the statistics after the game would have led one to believe that Catholic never had an issue with the Goucher College Gophers. The Cards took 27 shots in the contest, 14 of which were on goal, and only faced 4 shots from the opponent. Although the numbers were in their favor, the team would head into halftime with a 0-1 disadvantage to overcome. The Gophers were the first to score in the 14th minute, and the lead held up for the rest of the half.

“I think that in the first half of the game we were having a hard time getting into our normal style of play of passing the ball around,” sophomore Andrea Jablonskyj said after the game. “In the second half we went out with a positive attitude not letting Goucher’s 1-0 lead get us frustrated and capitalized on the chances that we had.”

The Cardinals settled into the game after halftime and came out looking like the best team in the Landmark once again. The defense regrouped and shut down the attackers from Goucher, and the team kept possession on the offensive side of the field for most of the half. The group that averages more than three goals a game had still not found the back of the net until a Goucher player received a red card in the 65th minute to send her off. Down a player, Goucher would have to defend their lead for 25 more minutes, and it was a feat they could not accomplish. In the 67th minute, freshman midfielder Taylor Pisk flicked a pass off a throw-in towards the goal that found junior forward Lindsay Aleman, who finished nicely to tie the game at 1-1. The goal to take the lead came ten minutes later off the head of Pisk, who placed it in the net off a corner from senior Ava Brown. Jablonskyj kept the scoring going with a fantastic shot from outside the 18-yard box. She then assisted two more goals in the last ten minutes of the match, scored by Kirsten Wosleger and Aleman. The 5-1 victory gave senior goalkeeper Lexi Halperin her 11th win on the season.

We focused on dominating possession in the attacking third by moving the ball faster and connecting well through our center midfielders,” Pisk said after the win. “Our outside midfielders also worked really hard to get good cresses in, and they created great chances for us.”

Catholic then traveled to Scranton, the Electric City, to play the Royals. The game could be seen as a chance for one team to establish itself as the conference leader, as both Catholic and Scranton had perfect 4-0 Landmark records going into the match. It was a hard-fought match that went back and forth all day. Scranton got on the board early with a goal in the 6th minute to take a 1-0 lead. CUA answered before the end of the half after a corner kick bounced around and found the feet of senior Kirsten Wosleger. She tied the game with the goal in the 34th minute. After the halftime break, the Royals took back the lead with a 79th minute goal. Time was not on Catholic’s side with a goal advantage and 10 minutes to play. But in the 85th minute, Catholic drew a foul inside the box to get a penalty kick. The Landmark conference leading scorer, Lindsay Aleman, beat the keeper to tie the game at two just before the end of regulation time. The tie game meant overtime for the evenly matched squads. After a scoreless ten minutes, the match continued into double overtime.

“We generated so many opportunities during the first overtime period but just couldn’t finish and then we talked about the need to capitalize on those chances,” Aleman said.

Then in the 107th minute, Taylor Pisk had her back to the goal in the 18-yard box, and quickly slotted the ball to Aleman. Aleman had no time for a touch before shooting, but she sent the ball into the top right corner with the left foot. As ball hit the back of the net, the team erupted in celebration over their first victory at Scranton since 2007.

“As soon as I saw the ball hit the net it was just an amazing feeling. I turned around to see my team storming the field and I ran over towards them and we all were just so excited. To finally beat Scranton at their field was the best feeling,” Aleman said after the game.

The Cardinals will continue with conference play tomorrow, Saturday, October 24th as they take on the Susquehanna at 3:30 p.m. for their final home game of the season.