By Connor Bell
More of the same for Maryland women’s soccer. They did tonight what they have been doing so far this season, playing well the whole entire game, and not being able to close the deal, as they dropped their third game of the season, falling to James Madison 1-0 in overtime.
Both teams entered the game with the same record (4-2-0) after Maryland came home from their two-game road trip in Texas with a loss and a victory. Although these two teams came in with the same record, the JMU Dukes had only lost to ranked teams this whole season so far, No.25 Georgetown, and No.9 Virginia Tech, so they were a better team coming into College Park than their record spoke for.
From the start of the game Maryland was red hot on offense as they maintained the ball in JMU’s end of the field for the majority of the game as midfielder Cassie Phillips and forward Gabby Galanti managed five shots combined on JMU Goalie Ellen Forrest. With that offensive pressure, the Terps managed to get 13 corner kicks in the game, yet netted no goals on Forrest. Because of this Terps offense, sophomore Rachel Egyed, who made her first career start for the Terps at goalie, faced little shots and 0 corners throughout regulation. Egyed started in place for usual starter Rachelle Beanlands, who had tweaked something in her back during the teams road trip.
As the game continued, the Terps continued getting great looks at the net and plenty of corner opportunities but could never put the ball in the back of the net still. Doing this gave the Dukes life as they managed to escape to overtime with a 0-0 game with the same number of shots Maryland had taken in the second half (8), and they gave themselves a chance to win the game.
As the game headed into overtime, the Terps seemed to have exhausted their bench as many subs were made in between stoppages in play. But this did not stop the Terps as they still continued to keep the ball on JMU’s side of the field for the first two minutes of overtime; however the first JMU push on offense in overtime occurred as they started to make a run towards Maryland’s side of the field. Originally defenseman Kayla Shea had stolen the ball from JMU forward Rachel Ivy, but Ivy stole the ball back and passed it onto another JMU forward Ashley Herndon who found herself one on one with Rachel Egyed and she put it past her for the win.
The loss drops the Terps to (4-3-0) on the season and the Dukes rose to (5-2-0).
“If you had looked at the quality of soccer between the two teams I feel we would’ve won big today,” said Terrapins head coach Jonathan Morgan after the devastating loss.
Coach Morgan also remarked that there needs to be improvement with the corner kicks as the Terps went 0 for 13 on attempts.
Remarking on her first game in front of the net, Rachel Egyed said, “Touching the ball early definitely helps [her nerves] like ok it’s fine, even if it’s touching the ball with my feet, any touch helps settle nerves.”
Coach Morgan also remarked he is comfortable with either Egyed or Beanlands in the goal for Maryland so looks like her has a decision to make for the Terp’s next game versus Yale in College Park.
