The Tribe of the College of William & Mary topped the Pride 1-0 during a rainy and cold Sunday afternoon to earn its second conference win on Oct. 9 at Hofstra’s Soccer Stadium.
The rain played a factor throughout the game as multiple Pride players went down on the turf and could not handle the ball as well as they would have liked.
The Pride began the game controlling the ball in William & Mary’s territory. Overall, the team dominated possession of the ball in the first half, but did not have any solid opportunities to score.
The physicality between the teams was clear, as there were nine fouls in the first half — five on William & Mary and four on Hofstra. There were 17 fouls total throughout the course of the game.
With 10 minutes left in the first half, sophomore Madeline Anderson, one of the Pride’s best defenders, had to come off the field due to bleeding, but Hofstra managed to keep the ball on the offense, preventing this from causing an issue.
Senior Haley Kavanaugh of the Tribe had perhaps one of the best chances to score in the first half as only one Hofstra defender was on her with 8 minutes to go. Her opportunity was stopped though, when a foul was called for elbowing.
The Tribe outshot the Pride 13-10, with six shots on goal compared to the Pride’s three during the game.
During the second half, the Tribe increased their possession of the ball as both teams continued to increase the physical play. Pride sophomore Sabrina Barton was thrown to the ground at the 38:00 mark, but no foul was called. Freshman Rachel Cardinal was also pushed down, this time resulting in a foul being called on the Tribe.
The Pride’s best opportunity to score came with just under 17 minutes to go when senior Jill Mulholland passed the ball to junior Kristin Desmond who had a wide-open shot, but whiffed.
The Tribe scored the lone goal of the game after Pride goalie Friederike Mehring stepped out of bounds with the ball in her hand around the 79 minute mark, resulting in a corner kick. Junior Sami Grasso recorded her third goal of the season with the assist coming from junior Rachel Moore, when the ball bounced off the goal post and went into the net.
Grasso’s goal proved to be the game winner as the Pride was unable to retaliate. A positive for the Pride came in its defense and ability to keep the ball away from redshirt freshman Sarah Segan.
“The kids worked hard and stuck to the game plan. I thought it was a good solid performance. Unfortunately, the ball just didn’t fall our way … We had a few decent chances where we should have capitalized, but didn’t,” said Hofstra head coach Simon Riddiough.
The Tribe returns home to play the University of Delaware on Oct. 14. The Pride drops to 7-7-1 overall and 1-5 in conference play with the loss and plays first place Northeastern on Oct. 15 at home.