The Mount Ida College women's soccer team hung tough with Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) preseason poll favorite visiting St. Joseph's College (ME) this Wednesday but ended up dropping a difficult 3-0 loss in Newton, Massachusetts. The score in no way reflected exactly how the game went with equal opportunities for both teams in the beginning of the match with the Monks as the only team able to capitalize offensively. The Mustangs fall to 1-2-1 overall in their GNAC opener while St. Joe's improves to 2-1-1, 2-0-1 in conference play.
The visitors notched their first score of the contest very quickly off a botched clear by the Mustangs in the third minute of play. The first shot was deflected by Mount Ida goalkeeper Meghan Begins (Jericho, VT/Jericho) kicking out in front of the net for Monk junior Jessica Needham (East Bridgewater, MA/Cardinal Spellman) to slide into the right corner for the 1-0 advantage.
The Mustangs had a chnace of their own immediately following on a bounding ball in front of the net. Mount Ida freshman Devan Meeker (Bantam, CT/Litchfield) fired a point blank shot in the middle of a scrum inside the box that was denied by St. Joe's goalkeeper senior Katye Mayo (Fairfield, ME/Lawrence) shutting down the chance for the hosts.
The action went back and forth with both teams creating chances for themselves while neither team able was to capitalize for the rest of the first. The horn sounded signaling the end of the half with the Monks holding onto a 1-0 lead.
23 minutes into the second half, St. Joe's found the net again off another unlucky deflection for the Mustangs that went favorably towards the Monks. A shot by St. Joe's junior Mikayla Call (Portland, ME/Catherine McAuley) on a breakaway was again denied by Begins. The ball was caromed to the left side of the box to the feet of Needham who had a wide open net to overtake the 2-0 commanding lead on her second goal of the game.
The third score of the contest came on another deflection off Mount Ida's goalkeeper that was poked in by Call for her first goal of the game in the 82nd minute giving the Monks the 3-0 lead and eventually the victory.
Begins was very unlucky today with all three goals let in off a deflection. She made five total saves on the day for the Mustangs while St. Joe's goalkeeper Mayo notched five stops as well.
The Mustangs will get on the road for the next five contests starting at GNAC foe Simmons College this Saturday starting at 1:00 p.m.