Women's soccer looks for scoring oconsistency

Scoring has proven to be a daunting task of late for the Bulldogs, putting their tournament hopes in jeopardy.

By Aaron Lichtig

Yale 193, Opponent 114. No, this is not a soccer score; it is the final tally of the number of shots taken by the women's soccer team and its opponents. Despite this shooting dominance, the team has struggled to find the net. Most recently, they were blanked in a contest against Colgate on Sun., Oct. 25, damaging their NCAA tournament hopes.

JULIA TIERNAN/YH Midfielder Sara Ruiz, SY '02, and the rest of the Bulldogs are looking for the back of the net.

Against Columbia, on Fri., Oct. 23, however, this scoring problem was not evident. The Bulldogs entered halftime deadlocked in a 0-0 tie with the Lions, but exploded in the second half, with Megan MacLeod, MC '01, Annie Kwon, CC '99, and Heather Jones, TC '01, each recording goals in just over 10 minutes. "Things just weren't clicking in the first half. At halftime, we said that we knew that we were the better team," forward Jen Wideberg, CC '01, said. "We were pretty excited. It was a Friday night home game with a big crowd in attendance, and we came off halftime with a lot of energy," Jill Rubinstein, DC '99, said.

Second-half explosions have been characteristic of the Bulldogs, who have outscored their opponents 22-6 in the final frame. "We seem to have this awakening during halftime. It takes us a while to adjust to the other teams' styles," Kwon said.

Two days later, when the Bulldogs faced off against Colgate, a team which defeated the Elis last year, the shooting woes which plagued Yale against Princeton reappeared. Yale outshot Colgate 20-8, but failed to find the back of the net, losing on a second-half goal, 1-0. "We were in control in the second half," Rubinstein said. "We dominated for the first and last 20 minutes, taking shot after shot," Meg Sullivan, CC '00, said. The team was also dissatisfied with its sloppy passing. "We looked like we were tired. The enthusiasm wasn't there," Rubinstein said. "We tried some different combinations to increase scoring, but nothing worked. We had one defensive breakdown and it hurt us," Kwon said. The missed shot conversions were of particular concern to the team following the game. "In practice over the next couple of days, we worked on making combination passes up front in order to get better shots," Sullivan said.

On Wed., Oct. 28, the Bulldogs took on NCAA tournament-bound Central Connecticut State (CCSU), who have already won the Northeast Conference. "It was a game held at a weird time on a weird field," Sullivan said. The team did not adjust well to these conditions, as it came out with another sluggish start. "It was not pretty, but we played through it," Rubinstein said. In the first half, CCSU had a scoring chance off of a corner kick. Sullivan, however, saved the goal by streaking to the goal mouth and heading the ball away from the line. "It was so close that some of their players were celebrating," Sullivan said.

In the second half, Sullivan stepped to the forefront again. Coach Rudy Meredith noticed that the CCSU outside backs were slow, and moved the team's fastest players, Sullivan and Megan Strenski, MC '02, to the forward positions, even though Sullivan had only played there once before. Meredith hoped that his two speedsters could outrun the fullbacks and break through the CCSU back line, which was playing a defensive, crowd-the-box strategy. In the second half, Meredith's strategy proved effective, as Strenski ran on to a ball and played a combination pass (similar to the one worked on in practice) to Sullivan, who hit the open net to give Yale a 1-0 victory. "Our practice and strategy really paid off," Sullivan said. Ironically, the Bulldogs were outshot 19-5.

If the Bulldogs are to have any chance at advancing to the NCAA tournament, they will have to win their last three games and then get some help from the tournament selection committee. Yale is fifth in the Ivy League and is far behind Harvard and Dartmouth, who each stand at 5-0. "The NCAA bid is out of our hands now. If we focus and win our last three, we should be able to make the ECAC tournament, though," said Kwon. The team faces both Pennsylvania and Monmouth this weekend in a difficult late-season road swing. "Penn will be a big game because we had a tough game with them last year and they have lots of people back," Wideberg said.

"We have had a lot of ups and downs this year," Kwon said. "We, the seniors, just want to enjoy our last games together and finish the season with a bang." To do so, however, they will have to finish more of their shots with a bang.

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