The Colgate women’s soccer team had an eventful past two weeks with the start of its Patriot League sea­son. The streak began with a 3-0 shutout against Buck­nell, followed by a tie in double overtime against Army that ended with a score of 1-1. Most recently, Colgate bagged its second league win against Holy Cross, 2-1, on Sunday afternoon.

Colgate’s Patriot League season started with a great win against Bucknell. They were able to completely shut out the Bison and outshot them 21-6. The Raiders came out strong in the first half. They played creatively and with determination. It soon paid off when, only three minutes into the half, a back pass from sophomore mid­fielder Kelsey Hough to junior forward Elise Amioka on the left wing started an offensive play. Amioka dribbled past the Bucknell defense to find first-year forward Jenna Raepple, who was able to pass the ball across the line.

Continuing their offensive attack, the next goal came minutes later at 13:03 when a corner from senior mid­fielder Maddie Malone was volleyed in by sophomore midfielder Klara Jenkins. Although the Bison tried to generate some offensive cre­ativity they couldn’t seem to find a rhythm and Colgate continued to pass the ball around them. The Raiders’s third goal was a successful pass from first-year midfielder Jenna Gibney to junior forward Jillian Kinter who easily beat her defender and drilled the ball into the back of the net.

In the second half Colgate continued to hold the offensive upper hand. Bucknell had a few close calls, one of which was off a corner kick at 60:39 but it was ousted by Jenkins. The Raid­ers continued to pressure the Bison defense, but were unable to find the back of the net for a fourth time leaving the final score at 3-0.

The Raiders found a tough opponent when they headed to West Point, New York to chal­lenge Army. Both teams came out with an ag­gressive swagger but it was Army who held the upper hand. The Black Knights forced junior goalkeeper Ashley Walsh to make two tough saves in the beginning of the half. Their third shot managed to get past Walsh to give Army the lead of 1-0 at 33:07. Colgate kept push­ing and was rewarded at 24:53 when the Black Knights received a foul in the box. This pre­sented senior midfielder Maddie Malone with her second opportunity at a penalty kick. She fired it into the net to tie up the game going into the second half.

The second half was dominated by the Raiders who maintained the majority of the scoring opportunities. The closest of these came at 73:59 when Hough was denied at the post. While both teams attempted to take the lead, neither was able to capitalize.

Army was the most offensively aggressive of the two in the first overtime period. It outshot Colgate 5-1 but were unable to find the back of the net. The roles were reversed in the second overtime with the Raiders far outshooting Army, but they too could not manage to take over the lead. The difficult game ended with a final score of 1-1.

Colgate came back with a vengeance from its tough game against Army to face Holy Cross in Worcester, Mas­sachusetts on Sunday afternoon. The Raiders came out aggressively and it showed when early in the game Kinter scored the first goal for the team. The tally came off of a phenomenal pass by Jenkins down the middle with Kinter putting it in the lower left corner of the goal. Although they continued to fight, Colgate was able to hold Holy Cross at bay and continue to create offense itself. Go­ing into the second half the Raiders held a 5-4 shooting advantage over the Crusaders and a 1-0 lead.

Holy Cross started the second half with an early goal to tie up the game. This increased the pressure on Col­gate to step up its game and gave the Crusaders motiva­tion to take the lead. Both teams worked hard to generate offensive opportunities, but were unsuccessful until the 61st minute when Colgate broke the barrier and took the lead. First-year defender Chelsea Roche passed off a free kick to first-year midfielder Caroline Brawner who fired it into the left corner. Although Holy Cross continued to pressure the Raiders and outshot them 5-3, the Crusaders were unable to capitalize. This left the Raiders with a win of 2-1 and their second Patriot League victory.

Colgate will travel to Annapolis, Maryland next Satur­day to play its fourth Patriot League game against Navy at noon.

Contact Tira Hastings at [email protected].