This post was written by Hatchet reporter Scott Nover.
It took the women’s soccer team all but 17 minutes to score two goals against Massachusetts on Saturday, which was enough to cement a 2-1 victory.
The win was the Colonials’ first in conference play after a loss to La Salle and tie to Fordham in their previous two matches, and kept GW undefeated (5-0) at home.
GW (8-3-1) struck early, and on the heels of its two most reliable playmakers: sophomore forward MacKenzie Cowley and junior midfielder Kristi Abbate.
Abbate picked up her team-leading third assist when Cowley scored in the 8th minute. Both Cowley and Abbate picked up their second and fourth assists, respectively, on the second goal. After Abbate sent a long pass to Cowley in the 17th minute, the sophomore dribbled past the goalkeeper and set up sophomore midfielder Lina Proska for her first goal on the season.
“We were talking about, all week, how the [UMass] goalie comes out,” Cowley said. “Right when I saw the goalie, [head coach Sarah Barnes] told us to take a touch right by her. So I just touched it by her, sent it in and Lina was there thankfully.”
In addition to the 11 UMass players on the field, GW also had to fight cold temperatures and light rain.
“The ball’s definitely a lot slipperier, so your touch just has to be on point,” Cowley said. “If not, it’s just going to fly off you.”
But as the rain subsided in the first half, so too did GW’s control of the game.
It wasn’t until the second half that UMass was able to respond to the early GW offense. UMass sophomore forward Alyssa Fratarcangeli’s struck a corner kick in the 60th minute, which sophomore midfielder Daniela Alvarez tapped passed Colonials goalkeeper Miranda Horn for the Minutewomen’s lone goal of the day.
“I thought that in the first half we were really good,” Barnes said. “I thought our movement was good, our runs were good. I thought we played poorly in the second half. I don’t know if they were worse in the first half, but I know that we were worse in the second half.”
Barnes cited a lack of ball control as the factor that dismantled the Colonials. Because of giveaways and poor touches, GW could not create the same kind of chances they set up in the opening half.
Barnes likened Saturday’s performance to GW’s last home game, a 2-1 win over George Mason, which featured a similar progression of scoring.
“You look at the Mason game, you look at this game, both teams are very direct. So they’re just playing the ball, they’re not trying to connect,” Barnes said. “They’re trying to dump the ball forward and then press. We have to be better at dealing with that.”
Moving forward, Barnes highlighted composure as a key component to both of GW’s recent near slip-ups at home, adding that maintaining ball control and providing a consistent attack are the top priorities for the team.
“It’s interesting, I think neither halftime did we talk about let’s sit in and defend,” Barnes said. “We talked about how important it was going to be to put pressure on the ball to deny services, and then keep the ball once we won it.”
Next up for GW is a match against A-10 newcomers Davidson (4-8-1, 1-1-0) on Friday afternoon.
