In their last game of the season on Saturday afternoon the Brandeis women’s soccer team lost 1-0 to University Athletic Association rival New York University. The Bobcats scored the game’s only goal in the 84th minute, ending the Judges’ season on a less than cheerful note.
The goal came on a breakaway by Bobcat sophomore forward Erin Ahmed, who shot it from approximately 25 yards out. The goal, her seventh of the season, tied her for the team high in that category. After the goal, the Judges got several opportunities to score the equalizer, including four corner kicks, but came up short each time.
Overall, NYU led in shots taken with 18 while the Judges took 16 shots. Brandeis midfielders Mimi Theodore ’12 and Sapir Edalati ’15 led the Judges with three shots each, while NYU junior Serra Tumay led the Bobcats with five shots of her own.
The game was a disappointing end to a rather disappointing season for the Judges, who ended the year 6-11-2, including 0-5-1 in the UAA. After winning their first two matches of the season, the Judges sputtered and lost the last three. This included a stretch of their final eight games in which they achieved only one victory.
There were high points to the season, however, according to forward Alyssa Fenenbock ’15. “Starting off ranked 18th in nation in the initial Division III poll was really exciting,” she said. Some fun memories included “traveling to Emory and Carnegie Mellon as an entire program on planes and becoming closer with both the women’s and men’s teams. It was a really cool experience traveling far away to play soccer, especially at a Division III school. There was a huge feeling of camaraderie amongst everyone and we got to spend much more time with the team than we normally would at home games or games that are a close bus ride away.”
Changes will need to be made, according to Fenenbock, who is encouraged for next year. “As a team, technically we are very good. We need to work on finishing and taking the chances we get. We definitely need to improve on our attack and work to rebuild the back line for next year, since we will be losing three key members.” Fenenbock and the rest of the team know that losing the seniors will be tough. “We’re losing great leadership on and off the field, and we’re losing six starters,” she said. “They’ll be difficult to replace and we’ll have to reconstruct our lineup in order to prepare for next year.”
Fenenbock laid down the team’s goals for next year. She said that the Judges want “to improve on [their] record from this year, do better in conference games and make a post-season. Ideally we would like to make NCAAs but, if not, make ECACs.”
