The University of Rhode Island women’s soccer team hosted Richmond on Thursday, Sept. 28 in a conference match-up under the lights. It was a defensive battle until Richmond’s Brooke Beam scored in the 62nd minute of the game. Less than three minutes later, Olivia Aha scored off an assist from Emily Drummond to put the Spiders up 2-0.
Rhode Island’s Emily Wakeford responded in the 73rd minute off a pass from Amanda Nardella. URI kept the pressure on their opponent as they had 5 of their 20 shots in the last 15 minutes of the game. However, the Rams could not tie the score and Richmond walked away with their first victory of the season.
The Rams played La Salle on Sunday afternoon at the URI Soccer complex. Rhode Island was hoping to capture their first conference win and break a three game skid. However, the Explorers shutout the Rams 2-0 and improved their record to 9-3-1 while remaining undefeated in conference.
Rhode Island head coach Megan Jesse said, “We’ve come a long way,” after Sunday’s game. “Everyday it’s about getting into practice and refining skills in each of the positions.”
The offense for the Rams started the game strong with multiple opportunities to score, in particular when Taylor Ross’s shot hit the bottom of the crossbar and bounced out to a La Salle defender.
Later in the half, goalkeeper Larissa Zambelli connected with Maci Bower on a long goal kick. Bower maneuvered her way to the goal and scored in the 26th minute to take the lead 1-0. Clarissa Kirsch-Downs scored on a corner kick at the 39:37 mark which was all the offense La Salle needed.
“Especially today, we turned a corner with the amount of fight we showed.” Jessee said when talking about the positives the Rams have showed this year.
“It’s a character thing, it’s a mental toughness thing that I think we were missing a little bit but we found it today. So that’s what we’re hoping that’s going to carry us and get us a couple wins this week.”
Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Haley Brennan made a season-high eight saves in the loss.
The Rams travel to UMass on Thursday, Oct. 5 for a 4 p.m start.