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RFH 2010, Colgate Soccer

Colgate Women Win

Sun, Oct 23, 2011

Kathy Brawn's squad is closing in on a Patriot League title and top seed in tournament.

Colgate Women Win

The Colgate women's soccer team defeated Lehigh 2-1 on Sunday afternoon to secure its fourth league win and a spot in the 2011 Patriot League Tournament.
 
The team, which is on a nine-game unbeaten streak, now sits at the top of the league standings with 14 points. Freshman Jenna Gibney scored the first goal while junior Alyssa Manoogian tallied the game-winner for the Raiders.
 
In the first half Lehigh came out as the more offensive team, taking the first shots of the game and playing an attacking style of soccer. Colgate (11-4-2, 4-0-2 PL) soon found its first opportunities and then at the 18:12 mark scored the opening goal when Gibney took a powerful strike from about 35 yards out that dipped into the top of the goal to give her team the 1-0 lead. Sophomore Kelsey Hough was credited with the assist. The early goal gave the Raiders' offense the boost it needed, coming close to a second goal on a couple of plays but were denied by goalkeeper Ashley Blanks who made a pair of incredible saves to keep her team in the game. Colgate continued to put pressure on the Mountain Hawks' net throughout the half and eventually found success with less than three minutes left when Manoogian volleyed a crossed ball from junior Jillian Kinter into the left corner to put the score at 2-0. Freshman Emily Manoogian set up her sister's goal with a great pass to Kinter.
 
Feeling the pressure of the two-goal deficit, Lehigh opened the second half pressuring the Raiders' net in an attempt to cut the lead. After outshooting Colgate 7-1 in the first 22 minutes of play, the Mountain Hawks came close to finding their first goal with a blasted shot in the 67th minute but it was knocked away by junior co-captain Ashley Walsh. The Raiders struggled to clear the ball from their defensive end as the period progressed and the intensity of the physical game picked up, but then a few offensive bursts late in the game was eventually able to relieve some of the pressure. Determined to find a goal Lehigh continued to take a flurry of shots from left, right, and center, and then at the 88:46 mark, found a goal to reduce the scoring margin to one goal. However, it was not enough to push past the Raiders, who were able to secure the 2-1 win.
 
Junior Ashley Walsh had a game-high seven saves for Colgate while Blanks had four for the Mountain Hawks
 
“The result was great but I am not quite sure that I am pleased about the way we got there,” said head coach Kathy Brawn. “I thought the two goals were beautiful and we had some wonderful individual efforts in the game but we can't be pleased about playing 90 minutes the way that we did.

"We have to credit some of that to Lehigh because they are a good solid team and they pressured us really well however, I don't think our players came up with the solutions we needed and it almost cost us at the end. Lehigh wasn't going to give up, nobody in the Patriot League will, and they (the Mountain Hawks) scored a very good goal to put the score within one. We don't want to put ourselves in those situations anymore so that is what we will be focusing on this week; putting together a full 90 minutes and playing much better soccer than we did today.”
 
The Raiders will host American next weekend in their final regular-season game on Saturday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. The game will be part of the team's Senior Day and will determine whether Colgate wins the regular-season title and the No. 1 seed to host the PL Tournament on Nov. 4 – 6.

Source: Colgate

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