Despite earning its seventh win of the season against Loyola University Chicago on Thursday, Oct. 24, defeating the Ramblers for the first time since 2014, the University of Rhode Island women’s soccer team was knocked out of postseason contention on Sunday afternoon after a shutout loss to Davidson College.
Heading into the weekend slate, Rhody sat tied for seventh place with Davidson and Virginia Commonwealth University in the Atlantic 10 Conference standings, with the top eight set to advance to the postseason.
In their final home game of the season, URI Head Coach Megan Jessee’s team prepared to face off against the Ramblers after taking 20 shots in each of their last two games.
“Chicago’s a very good team, they’re one of the better teams in the conference so we knew we wouldn’t create [chances] like we did in the last couple games,” Jessee said. “But we knew we had enough, and we knew we had especially speed up top that we could beat them on.”
Five of Loyola’s shots on goal came in the first half, but URI first-year goalkeeper Chelsea Mohammed saved each one. URI’s lone shot on goal was stopped by Loyola’s first-year goalkeeper Allison Deardorff in the first half, leaving both teams scoreless at halftime.
“It doesn’t get much better than that to be honest, she’s been great,” Jessee said. “I thought this was her best game, she came up huge when we needed her. [She] did the simple things right and kept us in the game.”
After Loyola started the second half with their third corner kick of the game in the 45th minute, URI generated a corner kick of their own in the 49th minute.
Not long after, second-year forward Lauren MacDonald received a ball from fifth-year forward Sam Hagerty in the midfield and streaked up the right wing, approaching Deardorff with speed. MacDonald picked the right moment to fire a shot to the far side and into the back of the net to put the Rams up 1-0 in the 52nd minute.
“It was a really big relief,” Hagerty said. “This was a tough game, so I was thinking whoever scored first was going to be the winner.”
While the Ramblers had three shots on goal in the half, including one by first-year Jocelyn Leigh 47 seconds after the MacDonald goal, Mohammed remained perfect to earn her second career shutout. The win put the Rams into position to clinch a playoff berth with a tie or a win against Davidson.
“I definitely think that this is the most well rounded team [I’ve played on],” Hagerty said. “Even just at practice, all the little things I think we do better than we have in the past.”
Following the win, Davidson hosted the Rams in a game that would decide the A-10 playoff matchups, as they sat right behind URI in the standings.
First-year midfielder Sophia Whiddon scored the game’s first goal in the 18th minute for the Wildcats before third-year forward Dakota Lyons added a second in the 25th minute. Fourth-year Tierra Garniss led the Rams in shots with three, but fourth-year goalkeeper Emily Smith made five saves to earn the shutout.
Tying the Rams for eighth place in the standings, the Wildcats had the edge in head-to-head results to claim the final playoff spot.
While their season ended on Sunday without a playoff berth, URI’s seventh win of the season marked Jessee’s highest win total in her eight seasons with the team.
“We’re very good throughout the whole roster,” Jessee said. “We have great depth in every position and we got some game changers in positions, which I think is huge. It’s a great group. They want to win, they work hard and they play for each other.”
While the Rams missed out on competing in the A-10 playoffs, having their best season in a decade should give Jessee and her players motivation to push themselves even further for their 2025 season.