After holding a 1-0 lead early in the second half, women’s soccer were stunned by two late St. Louis goals last Saturday. PHOTO CREDIT: gorhody.com
A landmark season has finally come to a close.
On Saturday, the University of Rhode Island Women’s Soccer team traveled to St. Louis for the Atlantic 10 Tournament quarterfinals, ultimately falling 3-2 in double overtime to the team they beat just a week prior.
Although it was not the result the team wanted, Rhode Island Head Coach Megan Jessee recognized the season was a step in the right direction for the program.
“There’s a lot of positives to take [away]” Jessee said. “It’s been a long time since this team has been in the postseason, so just the experience of getting there and playing in a postseason game is huge for the future.”
The Rams concluded their season with a 6-9-2 overall record and a 5-4-1 conference record, finishing sixth in the conference.
Against the Billikens in the quarterfinal round, Rhody was on the scoreboard first. Shortly after the second half kicked off, junior forward Claire Ross had the whole field to herself after a corner kick and raced towards Saint Louis territory. She got all the way to the box and fired a shot into the far post to make it a 1-0 game.
Ross, who scored the game-winning goal in their Oct. 24 matchup against the Billikens, has been a key presence throughout the season, even after battling through injuries and a COVID-19-shortened sophomore campaign.
“Ever since she came in, [she’s been] really solid this year [and] ready to go,” Jessee said. “To get your first two career goals in such huge games was awesome for us.”
Rhody held onto the lead until the 85th minute, when the Billikens’ Brionna Halverson snuck the ball in the corner of the goal to knot the game up at one. That effort was enough to send the game into extra time.
Both teams were still tied up after the first overtime period, but Saint Louis put away the game for good just three minutes into the second overtime period. Hannah Friedrich connected with a leaping Lyndsey Heckel on a corner kick. Heckel’s ball ricocheted into the post and into the back of the net to make it 2-1 and send URI home.
“It’s unfortunate the way it happened for us,” goalkeeper Faith Hutchins said. “We just got to learn at the end of games how to manage the time and perform.”
Even with those two late miscues, Hutchins put up another solid performance to cap off her sophomore season. The South Kingstown-native recorded nine saves, the second-highest total in her career.
“She’s been very solid all year; can’t say enough about her,” Jessee said. “I’m excited for her future as well.”
One area of improvement the team will likely look back upon is their play on the road. Although the Rams held a 5-2-1 home record this season, they only fared 1-7-1 on the road after Saturday’s loss, much to the dismay of Hutchins.
“I’m not saying we performed terribly on road games, because that’s not true,” she said. “It’s just, we didn’t get the results we wanted.”
This season was a sign of progress for the program. With a full offseason to recover and a young roster to build around, Jessee believes her team has the potential to be even better over the next several years.
“We graduated four seniors– four seniors who have contributed a ton to our program,” she said. “Ultimately, we have a very good core coming back, the majority of the team is, and we have some good freshmen coming in next year. We’re pretty excited, but it’s all about development.”