The 25th-ranked Brandeis women’s soccer team faced MIT away on Tuesday, Sept. 1 and crushed their opponent, 4-1, in the season opener. MIT handed the Judges their only non-conference defeat of the regular season last year with a 1-0 loss, so the Judges were eager to prove themselves against the Engineers. The Judges played strong defense, allowing just two shots in the first half, neither on goal. However, the MIT Engineers produced the same stellar defense fending off eight shots by the Judges, five on goal.
Going into the second half, neither team had scored but both were hungry for the win. The Judges let up long enough for the Engineers to strike first. In the 71st minute the Engineers scored on goalkeeper Alexis Grossman ’17 who had one save in the game with two shots on goal for the night. 3:38 minutes later the Judges answered with a goal by rookie Hannah Maatallah ’19, assisted by Cidney Moscovitch ’17. After that, the floodgates opened for Brandeis and the Judges managed a quick four goals in 10 minutes in the second half. Samantha Schwartz ’18 scored on an assist by Allyson Parziale ’16 2:07 minutes after the first Brandeis goal. 3:33 minutes later, Schwartz added to her stats by assisting Lea McDaniels ‘17 on the Judges third goal of the game and McDaniels’ third career goal. The last goal of the game for the Judges came at the 85:11 mark from Holly Szafran ’16.
Schwartz tied last year for the UAA lead with five game-winning goals as a freshman and picked up the game winning goal of her career in the game against MIT. This game also marked her third collegiate game with a goal and an assist in one game. Also Alec Spivack ’16 started for the Judges and contributed solid minutes, after missing the last 14 games of the 2014 season due to injury. Spivack received a medical hardship waiver and is back for her fifth season with the Judges.
The final score of 4-1 marked an unbelievable comeback for the Judges after losing to the Engineers last season, with a fantastic effort by the Judges finishing with 24 attempted goals versus MIT’s 8 scoring attempts. The score of 4-1 is the first time since 2011 that a game between the Judges and MIT was decided by a score larger than 1-0.
The Brandeis women’s soccer team is back in action on Friday, Sept. 4 just a few minutes down the road at Lasell College starting at 4 p.m. The Judges play in their home opener this coming Tuesday, Sept. 7 versus Bridgewater State University at 7 p.m.
