After a 10-0 start to the season, Hollins travelled to campus for Women’s Soccer’s senior day.
Head Coach Erin Saleeby said her squad was a second-half team, but the women jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first period.
Seniors Bri Bitz, Haley Woodward, and Jamie Adams each scored a goal within the first 10 minutes of the match.
“Scoring goals early sets the tone for the entire game. When you start well, it typically keeps the momentum going throughout the game,” Saleeby said. “It also allows us to move people around and try new things when you take an early lead.”
The team didn’t let their foot off the gas in the second half.
Four more goals were scored in the second half, and after a late goal scored by Hollins, the final score was 9-1.
Senior Madison Cruz was one of those goal scorers and was named player of the game.
To go along with the season-high nine goals, the team also tallied a season high of 42 shots.
“The team was really excited to honor the seniors,” Saleeby said. “We also had a good number of seniors score, and that was really exciting.”
Following the win, women’s soccer’s winning streak extended to 11-0, with a 2-0 ODAC record.
“I told them to celebrate the win and the seniors, but we turn the page and focus on the next game,” Saleeby said.
The next match was against Guilford.
After the end of the first half, the score was knotted at 0-0.
“We started the game really well,” Saleeby said, “We had good momentum and passed the ball well. We had good chances.”
In the second half, Guilford held a 14-5 shot advantage as well as the time of possession.
Guilford scored two goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half, and 2-0 was the final score, resulting in the team’s first loss of the season.
“We didn’t come out in the second half very well. They scored two pretty early goals. We felt like there was a foul for the second one, but that’s soccer,” Saleeby said. “I think that our lack of facing any type of adversity played a role in how we played after going down 1-0 and then definitely 2-0. We had a hard time getting things going offensively, which allowed them to continue to play the ball forward.”
This was only the second time the team trailed in a game.
The first time was against EMU where the team went down 1-0 early in the first half but scored five consecutive goals throughout the rest of the game.
But against Guilford, it was the first time being down multiple goals.
Women’s Soccer still holds a 2-1 record in the ODAC good enough for fifth in the conference, but only one game back of getting to the top spot.
Tomorrow, the team travels to Randolph Macon who sits in second with a 3-1 record in ODAC play.
“We talk about being able to bounce back after this. What we have to learn from our mistakes and continue to work towards our goals,” Saleeby said. “We know we are a really good team, but we are going to play really good teams, too. We have to be at our best going into Saturday.”
