Women's soccer wins NESCAC Championship

After an exciting 3-1 win over Swarthmore Saturday, the women’s soccer team closed out its best season ever with a 1-0 double-overtime loss to Montclair State in Sunday’s second round of the NCAA DIII Championship. It was only the third loss all season for the team, which brought home the College’s first-ever team New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) championship last weekend with a win over top-seeded Williams College.

See highlights from the Swarthmore game below. 

The 16-3-1 team cemented its place in history last weekend with the exciting overtime win over Williams, which came down to penalty kicks.

"It was a whole team effort. We battled and I'm so extremely proud of every member of the team," said captain Morgan Cowle-Haskell '16.

The third-seeded Camels advanced to the title game after knocking off second-seeded Bowdoin College 1-0, the team’s 11th shutout of the season. Bowdoin had defeated the Camels earlier this season, 3-1.

The championship match would give the Camels a chance to avenge its only other loss of the season, a 3-0 defeat against top-seeded Williams in September. A first-half goal by Alexa Tribelli '18 put the Camels up early, but the team spent the majority of the game defending an onslaught by the Williams attackers. The Ephs took 26 shots through regulation and two overtime periods, compared to just nine for the Camels.

Goalkeeper Bryanna Montalvo '17, who boasts a stingy 0.55 goals against average, made 12 saves. "She's really the backbone of our team," said Head Coach Norm Riker.

The Ephs finally broke through Montalvo in the waning minutes to level the score and send the match to overtime, where both teams were scoreless. With the conference title on the line, the two teams headed to a shootout — and Riker made an interesting decision.

The coach pulled Montalvo in favor of Amanda Onofrio '16, a defender and backup goalkeeper. "Three weeks ago, we trained for them. Amanda saved everything," Riker told The Day.

The gamble paid off. Onofrio turned aside two of the first five penalty kicks, keeping the shootout tied 3-3. In the sixth round, Rebecca Raymond '15 buried her try, and Onofrio denied Williams' final attempt to seal the victory.



November 10, 2014