Senior midfielder Kristi Abbate guided women’s soccer offensively Thursday afternoon in a dominant 3-0 victory over Liberty at home.
The Colonials, who entered the match having dropped their last three consecutive contests, held the Flames to four shots on goal and matched their season-high single-game goal total.
“We knew it was going to be a really challenging game so I certainly didn’t expect it to be a 3-0 win, the fact that it was is even better,” head coach Sarah Barnes said. “We got a really good result, it’s probably not the best we’ve played in terms of moving the ball but I think in terms of defending it was really good, and we needed that.”
GW (3-4-0) dictated the tempo from the start, spending most of the first half in Liberty’s final third. The pressure paid off early in the frame when Liberty (2-5-1) conceded an own goal off of a GW corner kick to give the Colonials a one goal lead in the 20th minute.
The visitors turned up the heat in the ensuing minutes, but could not find an equalizer, in large part due to the strong performance by redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Miranda Horn who stopped a pair of chances by the Flames from point-blank range.
“I think Miranda did awesome today,” Abbate said. “She did great coming off of her line and talking to us the whole time. Her confidence is definitely up after this game.”
A through ball to Abbate in the 32nd minute of the first half was taken deep into to the right corner of the box. Liberty, seeing no other way to stop her, took Abbate down and the Colonials were awarded a penalty kick, which senior defender Brooke Stoller netted the easily into the bottom left corner to give GW a 2-0 edge.
It did not take long for GW to find the back of the net in the second half either. Abbate managed to curl a shot past the Liberty keeper with precision from just outside the box to tally her first goal of the season and give GW it’s third of the match.
“Kristi’s playing the best soccer she’s ever played,” Barnes said. “Her decision making on the ball has been better, her movement off the ball has been really good and she obviously is explosive and dangerous on the dribble and I think the combination of that makes her really hard to stop.”
Horn was replaced by senior goalkeeper Ellen Conway midway through the second half. Conway was good for one save in GW’s third shutout of the season.
The Colonials secured their third win of the season with the three-goal victory and have just two games left in their out-of-conference slate. Abbate said the team is focused and confident but knows it must still work hard to build up momentum going into Atlantic 10 play.
“We’re fired up,” Abbate said. “Especially after those losses, one win is awesome but if you lose again it doesn’t mean anything, so I think we’re going to go into it extremely hard and get ready for conference play.”
GW returns to action Sunday when it takes on Delaware State at 1 p.m. at home.
