Sports

Women’s soccer victorious

Coast Guard Academy falls 3-1 on Saturday

In an exciting game that left them a goal behind at the start of the second half, the MIT women’s soccer team went on to defeat the Coast Guard Academy, 3-1, on a sunny Saturday afternoon following senior day. Jennifer R. Ibanez ’16 scored the game-winning goal in the 75th minute of play. The Engineers are now 12-3-1 for the season and 7-1 in NEWMAC play, while the Bears fell to 2-12 and 0-8 in conference play.

Just 21 seconds into the first half, Casandra N. Ceri ’13 took a shot at goal, revealing the pace at which the game was moving right from the very beginning. In the first half alone, MIT took 25 shots at net, compared to just four from the Bears. Goalkeeper Devin Fellman saved 11 of these shots in the first 34 minutes, while goalie Meghan S. Wright ’13 only saved one. In the 39th minute, Emily Marks put the Bears on the board when she sent the ball flying into the top left corner of the net off a free kick, giving them an edge over the Engineers.

Trailing a goal behind, MIT turned it into overdrive, forcing Fellman to make six saves in the first 18 minutes. Finally, in the 65th minute, the Engineers tied up the game on an own goal. Andrea Y. Park ’13 (Irvine, Calif.) lobbed the ball at the net following a foul and the ball deflected off one of the Coast Guard players and went into the net. Ten minutes later, Ibanez scored her fourth goal of the season when she made it past the defenders and shot from ten yards out, sending the ball into the top left corner. A mere seven minutes later, Emily Kuo ’13 scored the third and final goal of the game after a cross from Samantha A. Fleischmann ’14. This was Kuo’s 11th goal of the season and the 40th in her career. With less than eight minutes remaining on the clock, the Bears were not able to close the gap and the game ended with an MIT victory of 3-1.

In the second half, the Engineers took another 20 shots at the net, nine of which were saved by Fellman, crediting her with an impressive 20 saves throughout the entire game, while Wright made just one save the entire game.

MIT will close its regular season on Saturday, Oct. 27 at Smith, while Coast Guard will travel to St. Joseph’s (Conn.) on Tuesday, Oct. 23.