TOWSON, Md. – Three first-half goals by the College of William & Mary doomed the Towson women's soccer team, despite scoring twice from two different sources Friday afternoon. The Tribe took a 3-2 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) win at the Tiger Soccer Complex.
With the loss, Towson is eliminated from qualifying for next week's CAA Tournament.
How it Happened- William & Mary (12-3-1, 6-1-0 CAA) scored on its second shot of the game in the third minute Mackenzie Kober received a pass from the opposite side of the field. Kober trapped the ball, deked her defender and slipped a shot past Towson keeper Taylor Sebolao.
- The Tigers (6-8-4, 0-6-2 CAA) answered five minutes later. After a defender tripped her up, McKenzie McCaull recovered the ball and took a shot that skipped off her defender's foot. Coming in at a weird angle, the ball sailed just over the hand of William & Mary's Caroline Casey, tying the action at 1-1.
- William & Mary took a 2-1 advantage in the 13th minute as Sami Grasso chipped in a shot from 13 yards out after getting a pass from Nicole Baxter.
- In the waning moments of the first half, the Tribe went up by two when Rachel Moore got a pass across the top of the box from Haley Kavanaugh. Moore placed her shot on the right post with just 42 seconds on the clock.
- Down but not out, Towson got back within one in the 62nd minute as an errant clear from a Tribe defender went up the middle to Towson's Hollie Garber. The senior forward ripped a shot back at the Tribe goal to make it a one-goal game.
- The Tigers had a solid scoring chance in the 77th minute as speedy junior Natalia Pinkney was in on a break away, but Casey made the save to protect William & Mary's lead. That shot was the final Towson shot of the day.
- Towson's backline weathered a storm as the Tribe out-shot the Tigers 20-6, putting nine shots on goal. Sebolao finished with six saves, including four in the first half. William & Mary's Casey made three saves.
Behind the Numbers- Friday's loss was the sixth one-goal decision for the Tigers in 2015.
- The Tigers have scored multiple goals in six games so far this season.
- Sebolao, a junior for Towson, has made 115 saves this season, the most for the Tigers since Erin Quinn made the same number of stops in the 2012 season.
- McCaull and Garber each scored their second goals of the season.
Up Next for the Tigers Senior Forward Hollie GarberOn scoring her goalObviously it's great to put us back to within a goal and hopefully make something out of it. It's easier to come back from one goal rather than two. We had the momentum at that point and put them under a lot of pressure. I think after that we created a couple of decent chances; we just couldn't capitalize on them.
On going into her final game on SundayI just want to make the best out of it. We don't have a chance to make it to the CAA Tournament. It would be nice to just get a win and take us out of last place. We're way better than we're showing at this point.
Towson Head Coach Greg PaynterOn maintaining possessionI think what hurt us is how good and technical William & Mary is. We knew we had to put pressure on them. They're not a team that gives the ball up very easily; they're the type of team you have to go and get the ball from. We weren't able to coral enough of the second chance balls to keep them under pressure.
Regrouping to get ready for ElonI think sometimes it takes the pressure off. We're not going to qualify for the conference tournament and that's disappointing. But maybe that's going to allow to just focus on that one game and not worry about anything else. And we want to end on a winning note. That's what everybody wants to do. We'd like to be playing for something more important but sending these seniors off with a win and cap their careers with something positive.
- TowsonTigers.com -
