The University of Rhode Island Women’s Soccer Team continued their early season struggles with a loss to Davidson, before notching a scoreless tie against Saint Joseph’s.
Coming into the week with a two game losing streak, the Rams started the week looking to find a way back to winning on the road against the Wildcats.
To start the game off, Davidson’s only goal would come off an own goal from Rhode Island’s defense only 9:15 minutes into the first half. Junior goalkeeper Faith Hutchins, who would finish with three stops for the night, was unable to stop the deflection off a Ram defender, giving Davidson their only goal of the match.
Despite the offensive troubles of URI throughout the action, the Rams were able to ramp up the offense in the second half. Six different Rams were able to get a shot off, with four of those being on net, but not enough to secure the tying goal.
With their victory over URI, Davidson picked up not only their first win in the conference on the season, but their first conference win since April 1, 2021, about a year and a half ago. As the Wildcats advanced to 9-2-1 on the season, the Rams would head back to their home grounds this past Sunday to seek some luck in their next match against the Saint Joseph’s Hawks.
The Rams would start to pick up the offensive momentum that they had late in their previous match when they took on Saint Joseph’s, maintaining possession throughout most of the first half.
Despite their early offensive aggression, it still wasn’t enough to put any points up on the board. However, both teams would battle back and forth and the Rams defense wouldn’t allow Saint Joe’s to get shots on goal, resulting in a scoreless first half.
Sophomore midfielder Hope Santaniello would go on to get four shots off, with three of those being on goal, nearly adding to her one goal, three assist season. That made it seven total shots for her in her last two matches.
Santaniello has also been able to tally in 24 total shots, 12 shots on goal, 3 assists and a goal on the season so far.
(“Hope Quote”)
The second half wasn’t much prettier as the theme continued with both teams failing to notch the decisive goal. Hutchins would continue her consistent play with two stops in the net, giving the Rams their fifth tie of the season.
Despite coming off of a successful 5-4-1 conference record last year, sixth year head coach Megan Jesse hasn’t had the success she was hoping to continue from the previous season, with a record of 1-6-5. The five ties through 12 games is more than the last two full seasons combined, and Head Coach Megan Jessee feels the team is knocking on the door.
(“Jessee Quote”).
The Rams now just about halfway through their schedule, standing at 1-6-5 overall, and 0-2-2 to start off conference play. The team is seeking their second win of the season this Thursday, September 29th, at 7:00pm at the URI Soccer Complex against Richmond, with the match featuring on ESPN+.