Women’s soccer suffered its second consecutive Atlantic 10 loss Thursday, dropping 2–0 against George Mason at home.
Despite outshooting the Patriots (7-4, 2-1 A-10) 22-11, the Colonials (5-5-1, 1-2 A-10) could not bounce back from George Mason’s two goals in the first half. Nine of GW’s shots were on goal.
“I think their first three shots they had two goals,” head coach Michelle Demko said. “In terms of us being able to create opportunities and be goal dangerous, I don’t think that is where the problem lies.”
As the rain poured down throughout the first half, the Colonials applied sustained pressure on the Patriot end, shooting 12 times at the George Mason goalkeeper. Three GW players had three shots each going into halftime.
“I think it comes down to just focus and willingness to not only get on the ends of those shots, but on the ends of crosses,” redshirt junior defender Megan McCormick said. “I think we had a lot of possession in the first half, and it was obviously really promising, so that’s really exciting for us while we’re going forward.”
Senior goalkeeper Anna Tapen showed her skillset, at one point diving laterally in front of the goal and blocking a Patriot’s shot mid-air with her foot. Tapen made six saves in 90 minutes of play.
In the 33rd minute, George Mason freshman forward Emma Van der Vorst passed the ball to senior midfielder Emily Littell who shot a rocket from the top of the box to make the score 1–0.
Eight minutes later, Van der Vorst increased her seven game-scoring streak to eight as she tallied another point, making the score 2–0 in favor of the Patriots. She led George Mason with five shots, three of them on goal and she leads her squad with eight goals on the season.
In the second half, GW continued to attack George Mason’s half, tallying 10 more shots in the final frame.
During an offensive push in the 63rd minute, sophomore midfielder Kelly Armador charged into the goalie box after the ball, but slipped on the wet turf and crashed into Patriot redshirt junior goaltender Morgan Symmers. Symmers left the game with an injury but still collected five saves on the day.
Sophomore goaltender Louisa Moser replaced Symmers and stopped four of GW’s scoring attempts.
The Colonials had opportunities to score, but placed the ball either high over the crossbar, wide outside the posts, or into the arms of the Patriot goalkeeper.
“I think that we’ve been doing a really great job of playing bits and pieces and obviously we dominated the first half which is awesome, but if we can’t put our chances away and can’t play the full 90 minutes of soccer, then that’s something we need to focus on going in to the rest of conference,” McCormick said.
GW falls to 1–2 in A10 conference play, dropping them to tenth in the A-10 rankings.
“We’re not quite eight weeks together, and so it’s a new system that we have implemented,” Demko said. “I think the more games and minutes we can get under our belts together the stronger we’re going to get.”
The Colonials head to St. Bonaventure Sunday to take on the Bonnies. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m.
