All good things must come to an end, but I can certainly bet the womens soccer team agrees that there are better ways to go than losing 3-1 to non-conference rivals Tufts on Wednesday.
I didnt expect them to be too tough. Before the game, we went over it and our coaches said that they werent as strong as last year so we werent expecting them to be as tough as last year. Sarah Jasak 08 explained afterwards.
The Jumbos reached the scoreboard first as Tufts rookie Fanna Gamal managed to retrieve the ball from a scrum and put it past Brandeis goalie Betsy Medow 08 in the 13th minute. The Judges were able to answer back though as midfielder Sarah Jasak 08 continued her hot streak, capitalizing on a nice feed by rookie Melissa Gorenkoff 10 during the 17th minute of play. Tufts took the lead for good in the 24th minute as midfielder Kim Harrington used a Brandeis defensive breakdown to find Laura Fedore who scored her third goal of the season. Fedore put in the insurance tally in the 65th minute and the Jumbos completely dominated the second half, walking away the victors. It was a game of missed opportunities for Brandeis;
the biggest chance lost came in the 21st minute as Lisa Kaplin 07 was denied a break-away opportunity by Jumbos goalie Annie Ross and a Jumbos defender.
Brandeis out-shot Tufts 13-10 in the game, including 9-6 in the first half though Tufts held a 5-3 edge in corner kicks. Ross had five saves for Tufts while Medow in 64 minutes of action, had three saves. Julie Scherr 08 saw nothing come her way in the 26 minutes she defended the net for Brandeis.
The game was especially disappointing for co-captain Brittany Douglass 07, who was less impressed with what Tufts had to offer than how the Judges performed, I dont actually think it was what Tufts did, I think it was what we did. We didnt attack as a team, we had too many gaps between lines of defense and we werent hitting it into the corner of the goal. We could have just been passing it a bunch of times instead of shooting it into the goalies chest.
The loss to Tufts followed a 1-1 struggle at home over the weekend against Case-Western in which Brandeis held statistical dominance but could not take the win even with two overtime periods.
That game was just really frustrating because we had so many chances and it just wasnt happening for us. We really controlled the game, we had dominated it, and we controlled the ball for most of it but we just couldnt get it, it wouldnt fall in for us. Douglass said.
Case-Western scored first in the 72nd minute off a Brandeis turnover. Lisa Kaplin provided the equalizer seven minutes later on a magnificent individual effort. The goal was Kaplins seventh of the season and moves her into a tie for fifth on Brandeiss All-Time career points list with 74 points on 33 goals and eight assists. The Judges however, despite out-shooting the Spartans 6-1 in the double overtime frames, could not break the tie. Jenna Lipawsky 09 nearly won it in regulation but her shot met the crossbar.
Brandeis out-shot Case 28-9 in the game, including 17 in the second half as well as having a 6-4 advantage in corner kicks. Case goalie Kirsten McClain had 13 saves for the game while Betsy Medow stopped two for the Judges.
With their unbeaten streak ended at seven games and facing a tough opponent on the road in Rochester, it could be a tough mark for Brandeis. To Douglass though, the solution is simple, We just got to give each other support, we gotta be there, we gotta follow up every single one of our shots because a lot of times, the goalies bobble it and no ones there to just knock it away and if we did, then we would have had multiple goals in this [Tufts] game.
The loss drops Brandeis to 6-3-1 on the season and the Judges face a pair of tough conference matches. They face UAA rival Rochester on the road on Saturday the 7th at 5 p.m. and their next home match is on the 13th against Carnegie-Mellon.
