Raiders Split Games at Tournament

Over the weekend, the women’s soccer team faced off against two formidable foes in at the UConn Classic in Storrs, Connecticut. Colgate played against St. John’s University on Friday night and the host team, Connecticut, on Saturday afternoon. They defeated St. Johns 4-1 before losing a tough game against the Huskies, 2-0. Sophomore Forwards sophomore Franny Iacuzzi ’08 and first-year Josie Johnson ’09 were both named to the All-Tournament team. Iacuzzi scored two goals and had two assists while. Johnson scored a goal and recorded an assist. The split put the Raiders’ record at 3-2 thus far thisinto thein the young season.

In Friday’s match against St. John’s, Colgate took an early lead against the Red Storm on a goal by Iacuzzi in the first minute of play. Ten minutes later, St. John’s scored to even the game, but it would be the only goal they would score in the victory for the Raidersagainst senior goalkeeper Luisa Miller. The game remained tied until the 67th7th minute when Johnson shot a ball past the Red StormgoalieStorm goalie keepe, Rebecca Capinera.r from both Iacuzzi and Kathleen Head ’08. Within the next ten 10 minutes, Iacuzzi and junior midfielder Jackie Burch ’07 hooked up twice, first with when Iacuzzi scoriscoredng off of Burch’s shot inat the 72nd2nd minute, followed by, and then when Iacuzzi returniedng the favor five minutes later for Burch’s goal.

On Sunday, tThe Raiders were looking to get revenge against UConn, because the two teams had last met previously in the second round of last year’s NCAA tournament. The Huskies beat Colgate, 4-0,, and endinged the Raiders’ir season. The Huskies came into the season ranked ninth in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America’s preseason poll,. but startedHowever, they started the season off with two losses in their first four out-ofnon-conference games and were ranked 19th9th prior to last the weekend.

Saturday’s game remained tied at zero for the entire first half, but UConn had a huge advantage in shots, 22-2. The Huskies’ Elizabeth Eng got a ball passed past senior keeper Luisa Miller ’06 for a goal in the 56th6th minute. Colgate was unable to respond, though, and Connecticut scored another goal before the final whistle to make the final score 2-0. The shutout was the first that the Raiders had suffered this season and the second time in less than a year that Connecticut held Colgate without a goal.

“I am never [happy?] with a loss, but given the effort that was put forth and how hard we worked to never give up, I am happy with the performance,” head coach Kathy Brawn said about the Connecticut loss. ” Physically and mentally we played a very solid game and the mental toughness displayed was at a very high level. We had a lot of successes although the outcome does not reflect them.,” head coach Kathy Brawn said about the loss to Connecticut.

Despite a number of losses, the Raiders have performed well so far this season. To illustrate,tT There have been injuries to senior co-captain striker Kelly Kuss ’06, junior midfielders Kelly Niland ’07, midfieldeand r Megan Bergman ’07, and junior striker Tara Myer. ’07, midfielder/striker Jamie Herrmann ’09 and defender Lally Weyhrauch ’09.

“A number of freshmen are doing really well and they stepped into a challenging situation, but I am happy with what they have been doing,” Brawn remarked. Among the injured players, Kuss was named to second second team all-Patriot Lleague last year for the third time, and three of the four upperclassmen were starters in all 22 games that the Raiders played last year.

“We came into the seasons with high expectations and the injuries could have led to giving up on the season, but no one has given up at all. We could not have had any of the success that we have unless every single player had stepped up this season, not just an individual.”

The women look to regain their winning ways against the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Brigham Young University this weekend in Madison for the UW-Madison Invitational. Wisconsin was ranked 25th5th in the NSCAA preseason poll and moved up to number 13 before last weekend. BYU is is undefeated in six contests this season.