Women’s soccer team earns win, looks to continue trending upwards

The Saint Joseph’s University women’s soccer team earned a victory against the University of Rhode Island on Oct. 15, 2-1. The team was able to win through persistence, but they know that they have a lot of work ahead of them for future games.

The team had just come from a game on Oct. 12 against George Washington University that went into double overtime resulting in a tie, which could have impacted their performance in this weekend’s game.

In the game against Rhode Island, the team tried to find new opportunities to gain possession of the ball. Junior Michaela Finneyfrock and sophomore Bridget Galen were able to put together strong plays though Rhode Island’s defense was strong. Sophomore Brittany Hartwell-Miller’s defensive efforts kept the ball from reaching junior goalkeeper Grace Bendon very often.

While both squads had great efforts on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball, the Hawks’ defense is what kept them ahead.

“Defense really helped today, we had a strong midfield which was beneficial for us in the end,” sophomore Kylie D’Ambra said.

D’Ambra, with an assist from sophomore Erica Wallace, scored in the 39th minute of the first half. D’Ambra was able to pass all of Rhode Island’s defenders to score the goal, giving St. Joe’s the lead, 1-0.

“I made the run knowing I would get past the defender, so I just focused on the goalie and was able to make the shot,” D’Ambra said.

D’Ambra proved to be a strategic and impressive player throughout the game.

“We’ve try to mix up the line up for the past four games,” head coach Jess Mannella said. “Kylie’s been doing great. She was injured in the beginning of the season, so she was unable to play for a month. In this game, I thought she played well and to her full potential.”

Rhode Island scored a goal 25 minutes into the second half of the game. Bendon fought hard, but the Rhode Island players surrounded her from all directions making it difficult for her to make the save.

“We are usually good with possession, but Rhode Island was good with offensive and that is something that we are working on,” D’Ambra said.

Three minutes later, junior Taylor Ryan made a pass to freshman Morgan Bower, who was left to go one-on-one against the goalkeeper.  Fortunately, Bower was able to make it into the right corner of the goal to put St. Joe’s back in the lead, 2-1.

With this game against Rhode Island, the team knows that they need to improve on their consistency, and that there is still a lot to be done to prepare for the Atlantic 10 tournament.

“I think it wasn’t our best performance and we know that, but we pulled together and came out on top,” D’Ambra said. “We still have a lot of work for the A-10, but we have strong players and a strong team to lead us there.”

The Hawks will play Fordham University at home on Oct. 19. In this matchup, the Hawks will have to go up against the team whom they tied in the A-10 tournament last year, though Fordham remained undefeated.

St. Joe’s plans to recover from this game against Rhode Island, a team that proved to be very dynamic, by  enhancing their strategies for each game.

“I think we need to do a better job keeping the ball and matching their intensity,” Mannella said. “If we do that, I think we will be successful next week.”