Minutewomen Tie Wildcats

Despite Early Onslaught, UMass Settles for Draw

September 5, 2008

AMHERST, MASS. – With the help of two goals from senior co-captain Vanessa Patry, the UMass women’s soccer team opened its home schedule with a 2-2 draw against New Hampshire on Thursday afternoon on Rudd Field.

UMass (0-1-2) opened the scoring early when Patry converted the squad’s third shot of the game into her first goal of the season. At the 6:51 mark, she brought down a through ball from junior Katie Ruggles (Lunenburg, Mass./Lunenburg) and beat UNH goalkeeper Nikki Golding one-on-one with a shot high into the upper right-hand corner of the net. The assist was Ruggles’ first of her career.

UMass' Vanessa Patry scored in the Minutewomen's 2-2 draw Thursday. (Photo source: UMass Athletics)

The Wildcats (1-2-1) countered, however, less than four minutes later as Julie O’Shaughnessy collected a pass from Sara Hourihan and Shaunna Kaplan as the tying tally marked her first goal of the season.

The Minutewomen, who would log 17 shots in the first half alone, had a host of quality scoring chances in the period, including a deflected shot off the post by freshman Natalie Muka at 22:10 and an offensive flurry just over a minute later that saw sophomore Kelsey Anderson (Saugus, Mass./Saugus) hit the crossbar, while Muka and Patry had point-blank shots turned aside by Golding.

“I’m disappointed because we could have put game away in the first half,” said UMass coach Jim Rudy. “But a combination of great defensive plays by UNH, great goalkeeping and misses where we had some lay-ups prevented that. We could have put it away early and maybe have gotten more kids in the game. If we had been able to do that, it would have helped us sustain their second half surge when they made sub after sub. They did a good job in coming back with numbers and we slowed down a little bit. I’m happy, though, we made progress. It’s sort of a double-edged sword. I’m sad that we gave up the lead and I’m disappointed for our players because they put a lot into it.”

At 31:17, UMass regained the lead on Patry’s second of the game as she fired a shot from the right and tucked the ball mere inches inside the left post off a feed from freshman Meghan Collins. Patry tied her career high in goals, marking her second multi-goal game of her career, while Collins’ registered her first collegiate point.

With under eight minutes to play in regulation, the Wildcats managed to tie the score at two with a tally by Sarah Hourihan at 82:55. Hourihan’s shot found its way into the lower left corner of the net on a pass from Kaplan.

Junior Lauren Luckey finished with six saves for the Minutewomen and Golding totaled 10 stops for UNH. UMass out-shot the Wildcats, 25-15, while corner kicks were 4-2 in favor of UNH.

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