Rare Home Loss for Minutewomen

St. Louis Snaps UMass Unbeaten Streak

November 1, 2008

AMHERST, Mass. – St. Louis scored a goal in each half and the UMass women’s soccer team lost at home for the first time in over a year, falling 2-0 to the Atlantic-10 foe Friday.

The loss was the first on Rudd Field for the Minutewomen since Oct. 21, 2007, snapping an eight game home unbeaten (6-0-2).

Saint Louis (10-4-4, 6-3-1 A-10) managed to get on the board midway through the first half when Julia Bradenberg sent a pass from center out to the left for Ashley Hayes, who drove a low shot into the far corner of the net at the 21:19 mark.

Just over 10 minutes later, UMass (6-3-1, 3-6-1) narrowly missed a chance to tie the score at one. Senior Vanessa Patry fed junior Cristina Adams (Braintree, Mass.) in the box, but Adams’ shot went just wide of the left post from point-blank range.

The Billikens later made it 2-0 after a period of sustained attacking pressure. Jasmina Suljic collected a loose ball amidst a scramble in front and tapped it into the left side of the goal at the 71:53 mark. Andrea Barklage earned an assist on the play.

“I thought we could do a little bit better,” said UMass coach Jim Rudy. “It’s the same deal; we’re just not getting to goal. And unfortunately the times we got close to the goal, we didn’t make use of. We had two corner kicks that we could have done some damage with. We didn’t complete either one; one went out of bounds and one went right to the other team. It’s really been the story the last few weeks, offensively run-down.”

Saint Louis finished with 22 shots to UMass’ four. Junior Lauren Luckey made eight saves for the Minutewomen, while Hannah Perry had two for the Billikens.

The Minutewomen will close out their 2008 campaign this Sunday with a match against Charlotte at 1 p.m.

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