The Colgate women’s soccer team took on two opponents in the past few weeks. The first was a devastating loss to the Bos­ton College Eagles, who shut out the Raid­ers with a final score of 4-0 on September 11. They then revved up their level of play for last Tuesday night’s game against Dart­mouth College to cinch a double overtime win, leaving the final score 2-1.

Colgate faced a difficult setback against the Eagles, who came out on the offensive right off the bat. Junior goalkeeper Ashley Walsh, however, recorded a game-high eight saves to keep them at bay. One of those saves included her stopping a BC penalty kick in the last couple of minutes of the match.

Boston College came out hard in the first half, scoring two of their four goals within the first ten minutes of play. The first was a header at the 7:11 mark, while the second came off a confusing loose ball in the box two minutes later. The Raiders regrouped and came back, creating some action on the offensive. With a couple of shots and a cor­ner kick, ‘Gate put an end to the first half but was unable to put one in the back of the net.

At the start of the second half, the Eagles had outshot Colgate 12-3, and play started much the same as it did at the start of the game. BC came out strong, attacking the Raiders’s net and challenging their defense. Colgate was unable to generate very much offense in the second half. The Eagles put in two goals, the first at 49:50 and the final goal at the 68 minute marker. Walsh denied Boston’s final shot off a penalty kick at the end of the half to keep the score 4-0. Walsh provided insight for Dartmouth’s game after such a difficult loss against BC.

“After a tough loss like the one against BC, it’s really important for the team not to get down,” Walsh said. “We did some really good things in that game, and there is also a lot to improve upon. You have to be able to move on, stay positive and look to what is next. In the practices leading up to our next game, we have been working hard to sharpen up our game and stay focused on the present task, Dartmouth.”

Colgate did sharpen up its game and came out on top of an overtime match against the Big Green on Tuesday. Although Dartmouth came out strong in the begin­ning of the first half and controlled the of­fense, play began to even out after a only a few minutes. The Raiders had many more scoring opportunities, two of which came from junior forward Jillian Kinter. An­other of the two was a narrowly saved shot from sophomore midfielder Klara Jenkins. The Raiders outshot Dartmouth 9-2, but the score remained 0-0 at the close of the first half.

The second period became more physical as both sides began to feel the pressure of the even score. The Big Green racked up several fouls in the first couple of minutes of play but continued to attack Colgate’s net aggressively. This strategy paid off when they were able to put one in the back of the net at the 55 min­ute mark. They had another close shot shortly after, but were denied by first-year defender Chelsea Roche. The Raiders revved up their game to match Dartmouth’s goal by scoring off a corner kick from senior midfielder Mad­die Malone. Malone did a quick pass off to first-year midfielder Caroline Brawner, who crossed the ball to first-year midfielder Emily Manoogian. Manoogian headed the ball into the top left corner to tie up the game at 67:33. Colgate continued to outshoot the Big Green through the final minutes of the half, but the team was unable to put another goal in during regulation time.

In overtime, the contest continued to get physical as both teams sought the advan­tage. Walsh was able to make an impressive save off a close opportunity for the visitors, keeping the score to 1-1 at the end of the first overtime period.

Going into the second overtime, Colgate had a close scoring opportunity that was barely saved by Dartmouth’s goalkeeper. With just two minutes left in an intense game, Manoogian was fouled at the top of the box, giving the Raiders the perfect scor­ing opportunity off the free kick. Manoo­gian took the perfect shot, sending the ball into the top left corner to end the game with a 2-1 victory for the Raiders.

After such an exciting victory, it seems that the Raiders are on their way to a triumphant season.

“Our team has tons of potential to put together a great season,” Walsh said. “We all want to win the regular season, host and win the Patriot League tourna­ment, as well as make a good run in the NCAA tournament.”

This weekend, Colgate will hit the road for a match against St. Bonaven­ture on Friday at 3 p.m. but will re­turn home to play Canisius at 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.

Contact Tira Hastings at

[email protected].