The Mount Ida College women's soccer team dropped their fifth straight Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) loss 2-1 to hosting Emmanuel College this past Tuesday night in Boston, Massachusetts. With the loss, the Mustangs drop to 1-6-1 overall and are still searching for their first GNAC win of 2009 (0-5) while the Saints improve to 6-4-1, 4-1-1 in league play.
The Mustangs were outshot, 8-4, in the opening period, holding the opposition scoreless with the two teams entering halftime knotted at 0-0.
The hosts put their first goal on the board early in the second half, when freshman Elizabeth Blasser (Pembroke, MA) received a feed from Amber Di Nucci (Assonet, MA). Blasser's goal came in the 56th minute and Emmanuel took a 1-0 lead.
Mount Ida tied the contest fifteen minutes later with a put-back off a diving save. Freshman defender Meghan Moriarty (Holbrook, MA/Holbrook) drilled a shot from the right side, which Emmanuel's rookie keeper dove to stop. Freshman midfielder Heather Harrington (Bedford, NH/Mancehster West) found herself in perfect rebounding position and tapped in the deflection to eliminate the deficit for Mount Ida. Moriarty was credited with the assist on the play.
The game-winner for Emmanuel came in the 77th minute. Emmanuel's senior midfielder Kate McKenna (Holyoke, MA) sent a shot into the Mount Ida defense. The ball was deflected by a Mustang defender and called an own-goal in favor of the Saints.
The Mustangs had one final chance to tie things up. With a little more than a minute to play, junior forward Rebecca Tisbert (Cambridge, VT/Lamoille Union) led a breakaway that was broken up by Emmanuel sophomore Logan Carr (Saratoga Springs, NY) and Saints keeper Jessica D'Ottavio (Pawling, NY), who charged out of the net to thwart the visitors' run.
Mount Ida's keepers, Kelsea Curtis-Ney (Johnstown, NY/Johnstown) and Meghan Begins (Jericho, VT/Jericho), shared the 4 first-half stops for the Mustangs. Emmanuel keeper D'Ottavio stopped all three of the Mustangs' first half shots on goal.
Curtis-Ney, who played 12:00 for Mount Ida, made two saves. Begins put in a 78:00 effort and notched seven saves for the Mustangs. Emmanuel out-shot Mount Ida, 18-8, and the Saints led in corner kick opportunities, 6-2. D'Ottavio went the distance in net for the Saints, making five stops.
The Mustangs will travel to non-conference Becker College this coming Thursday in Worcester, Massachusetts starting at 6:00 p.m.