TOWSON, Md. - The Towson women's soccer team will play its final non-conference game of the season when the Tigers (3-4-1) face the Villanova Wildcats (2-4-1) on Friday, Sept. 19 at 4 p.m.
The Wildcats are coming off a 2-1 loss at Princeton on Sunday, Sept. 14 in New Jersey. Prior to that, Villanova had beaten James Madison - Towson's first Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) opponent of the 2014 season - 3-0 at home. The Wildcats are led by Victoria Gersh's three goals. Katie Martin is second with two goals. Amanda Vocelka leads VU with three assists. Emma Meyer has started six of seven games and has allowed 11 goals for a goals-against average (GAA) of 1.64. She has made 34 saves.
The Wildcats are overwhelmingly a second-half team; they have scored seven of their eight goals in the second half. Villanova also is having trouble generating shots. Opponents have taken 128 attempts against VU's 68.
Towson is coming off a 2-0 win over UMBC at home on the concluding day of the 2014 Battle of Baltimore Tournament. The Tigers received goals from senior co-captain
Sofia Read and sophomore
Natalia Pinkney. Pinkney, freshman
Kristyn Hubbard and junior
Nicole Nicholas all earned spots on the all-tournament team. Senior co-captain
Katie Ponce, Pinkney and freshman
Gabby Scirica have each scored two goals for the Tigers. Pinkney also has two assists to lead the team with six points. Senior
Erin Quinn has a 1.13 GAA and has made 32 saves and recorded three shutouts.
Villanova and Towson have only played twice, and the Wildcats have come out on top both times. Friday's match revives a series that was home-and-home in 2002 and 2004. Tigers have never scored against Villanova. The last time the teams met, the Tigers were held to just six shots in the 2-0 loss to Villanova on Sept. 19, 2004. Laura Johnson and Megan Farmer each scored in the second half for the Wildcats, who tallied 17 shots, 10 on goal. Goalkeeper Brandi Daniels made seven saves for the Tigers. Johnson scored from 10 yards out on the left at 40:11 on assists from Kayce Blandford and Stacia Hartung. Just 42 seconds later Farmer shot and scored left to right, assisted by Huartung.
Towson takes the week off before starting CAA play against James Madison on Friday, Sept. 26 at 3 p.m. at the Tiger Soccer Complex.
