BALTIMORE – GW redshirt freshman Kim Warner scored her first goal as a Colonial with 9:10 left in the first overtime to give the women’s soccer team its first victory of the season, a 3-2 win over host University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
Warner took a pass from teammate Tiffany Williams, made a fancy dribble to elude UMBC goalkeeper Becky Hicock and landed the game-winning shot into the right corner of the goal.
“It felt good to do something.” Warner said. “It felt good to play.” Warner, perhaps the fastest player on the field, missed all of last season with an ACL tear.
GW’s other hero Friday was Williams, who aside from setting up Warner’s game-winner, managed two goals of her own, each one tying the game.
“She is a hunter,” GW Head Coach Tanya Vogel said. “She hunts balls out, she sniffs them out, and she went after it.”
Down 2-1 with less than 15 minutes remaining in regulation, Williams took the ball on the right corner and sent it into the left corner of the net, an identical shot to one she missed less than a minute earlier.
The Colonials (1-2) came out strong early, but were unable to capitalize on several scoring opportunities in the opening minutes. UMBC (0-5) was able to steal the momentum and score first in the 21st minute when Retrievers senior Erin Lesh wove around two GW defenders on the right side and passed to fellow senior Beverly Campbell directly in front of the goal.
Freshman GW goalkeeper Christine O’Malley had little chance as Campbell took advantage of her positioning and scored the game’s first goal. But Williams didn’t allow the lead to last long.
In the 29th minute, Williams took a pass across the middle from junior Angelica Caramanica and headed the ball into the goal for the Colonials’ first score of the season.
“It was time,” Williams said. “It was time for us to play the way we could play.”
The goals scored against UMBC were the most GW has scored since October last year when the Colonials beat Temple 3-0. The Colonials, who scored only 16 goals all last season failed to score in the first two games.
“These guys were all heart and guts out on the field, which is hard to do when you start off down,” Vogel said.