In their third New England Women’s and Men’s Athletics Conference (NEWMAC) match of the season, the Emerson women’s soccer team secured their first league win against the United States Coast Guard Academy at Rotch Field to improve their record to 2-4-4. The final score of 3-0 also marked the Lions’ first shutout win of the season.
Throughout the game, Emerson established consistent pressure on both sides of the ball. While the USCGA Bears ended up taking more shots, a total of 14 compared to the Lions’ 10, the two teams had seven shots on goal each. However, Emerson was able to convert more shots due to pushing the pace on fastbreaks.
“In defending, pressing individual players and small groups of attackers in an organized way was trained and used during the match,” head coach David Suvak said in an interview with The Beacon. “At times we are using Geggenpressing principles and other times using a line of confrontation to allow the opponent to believe they can build up.”
Suvak also talked about how their attack followed a similar notion of using pressure to create opportunities.
“In attacking, the relentless pursuit of creating goal scoring opportunities,” Suvak said. “We try to create plays and moments to break down, open up the opponent to get in and behind them. We try to accomplish this by switching the point of attack while looking to penetrate around, through or over them.”
The first goal came in the 15th minute after junior forward Liane Bezdek received a cross pass from senior midfielder Maddie Khaw and was able to knock the ball right past the goalie. The rest of the first half was back and forth with any pushes by Emerson getting called for offsides. The Lions were still able to play suffocating defense whenever the Coast Guard Academy came close to scoring, with stops from senior defender Lauren Larking and senior goalkeeper Amara Schaub.
Coming out of the half, Emerson looked a little flat and did not play as aggressively as they did in the beginning of the game. This didn’t last for long though, and the Lions started hunting for more shots and soon enough notched their second goal. Bezdek received a short pass from senior defender Jillian Venezia and was able to split the defense on the way to her second goal of the game.
Just as the Bears were recovering from the last goal, Bezdek was able to field a pass from the defense and get the ball up to Khaw who threaded it into the top right corner. This goal pushed the score to 3-0 and came only two minutes after the previous one.
Two more offsides calls stuffed more fast breaks for Emerson, but their defense and accurate passing were able to stall out the rest of the game. Fans cheered as the final horn rang and the Lions’ NEWMAC record now sat at 1-1-1.
After last year’s 10-7-2 record and falling just short of the NEWMAC championship game, Emerson is taking every game one at a time to build themselves back up to the playoffs.
“We are actively chasing each individual result in our effort to advance into the NEWMAC playoffs,” said Suvak. “As the season progresses with each positive result we get closer to our team goal.”
On Wednesday, Oct. 9, the Lions took on Salve Regina at home where they won 2-0 in another NEWMAC showdown. This Saturday, Oct. 12, Emerson will travel to Norton to take on Wheaton College in hopes of extending their two-game win streak.
