The Brandeis women’s soccer team opened their season with an away game against MIT on Sept. 1. The sixth-ranked team in the nation took a hard loss against the MIT Engineers with the final score at 3-2. Senior Samantha Schwartz ’18 started the game strong by earning her 22nd career goal in the eighth minute of play with her signature shot from the top of the 18-yard line. MIT answered with two goals earned in the 23rd and 35th minutes of play. Brandeis took control of the second half with Haliana Burhans ’18 scoring her eighth career goal with the assist by Sasha Sunday ’19. In the 65th minute the Engineers scored the decisive goal despite the attempt by Schwartz in the 81st minute. Victoria Richardson ’20 had four saves in the first 35 minutes of play in her third collegiate appearance. Goalkeeper Sierra Dana ’20 made six stops in the final 55 minutes in her first collegiate action.
Despite the loss, the Judges came back two days later to take down Lasell with a 5-3 win. In just the first three minutes of play, the Lasers earned their first goal of the game and their first goal against the Judges since the 2015 season. Hannah Maatallah ’19 scored a goal to even out the score with 29 minutes left of play in the first half. After the Lasers scored their second goal of the game, Schwartz scored shortly after on a breakaway into the lower left corner. Burhans also contributed one goal respectively and rookie Mackenzie Smith ’21 earned her first career goal ending the game for Lasell. Brandeis had an 18-11 advantage in shots. Dana made four stops for her first collegiate victory.
The Brandeis Judges had their home opener Sept. 5 against Bridgewater State University ending with a 2-0 victory. Ending the first half with an even score of 0-0, the Judges came back in the second half to earn a pair of goals in the final 20 minutes of play. Sunday scored her goal in the 70th minute of play with an assist from Julia Matson ’19. Matson later earned a goal with an assist from Katie Hayes ’20 in the 79th minute. These were the first goals for Sunday and Matson this season.
Dana had three saves of the game to earn her first career shutout. The Judges dominated the game by outshooting Bridgewater 10-5 in the first half and then 12-0 in the second half. When Bridgewater State got close to 18-yard line, Sam Volpe ’19 shut them down, denying any chance of taking a shot on goal. The Judges improved to a 9-2-1 all-time against Bridgewater State, including a six game winning streak.
The Women’s soccer team goes on the road for the next three games, starting with a game at Wentworth Institute of Technology on Saturday at noon. They will return to Brandeis Sept. 19 against Babson College.
