In an exciting week of play, the New Paltz Women’s Soccer team began a two game win streak, claiming victory over Bard on Wednesday, Sept. 15 and Manhattanville on Saturday, Sept. 18.
Prior to this week, the team had failed to secure a win– tying their home opener against Sage, and losing against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Skidmore. However, the tides changed on Wednesday when the Hawks claimed their first victory over Bard, winning 2-0.
No goals were scored in the first half, although the Hawks had many opportunities. The team out-shot the competition 29-5 with multiple shots bouncing off the crossbar. Goals were scored by first-year midfielder Rachel Eisert and first-year forward Sky Pedroza.
Eisert was the first to score in minute 63 off of a free kick from first-year midfielder Emma Voege. Graduate midfielder Lisette Palomo applied heavy pressure on Bard’s defensive back, forcing her to pass back to their goalkeeper where Pedroza was waiting to put pressure and scored in minute 76.
“It was so awesome to get our first win, especially with our freshman [Rachel Eisert] stepping up scoring, but I think even though we got this win there’s a lot of work we have to do as a team,” said Pedroza in a post-game interview to Monica D’Ippolito. “We had a lot of missed opportunities, but we know next game we’re going to finish those.”
Three days later, the Hawks looked to start the first win streak of their season– and they delivered. The team claimed victory over Manhattanville with a final score of 7-1. The team had collectively scored only four goals this season prior to the matchup.
The team capitalized on their chances in their offensive third, with goals coming from third-year forward Siena Diaz-Colon, fourth-year midfielder Cailin Ruoti, Eisert, third-year midfielders Dana Salinas and Jillian Dantona and two from Pedroza.
The opening goal for the Hawks came just over two minutes into the game. Diaz-Colon finished a loose ball in the Manhattanville box to score her first goal of the season. Just after, Diaz-Colon assisted a goal by Ruoti, also her first goal of the season.
Following Ruoti’s goal, the Hawk’s defense broke down leading to a goal for Manhattanville. However, the Hawks retaliated by getting another goal, scored by Pedroza, by the end of the first half. In the second half, the Hawks buried their opponents by scoring four more goals.
Eisert scored off of a headball from a corner kick by Voege, Salinas scored off of a shot from well outside the box over the keeper’s head, Daytona scored off of a drilled lower-corner shot and Pedroza scored for a second time off of a free kick from first-year midfielder Alexis DeLeo.
“I think honestly, this team really needed it because we’ve been struggling with finishing the ball and we needed to take 50-50’s, we needed to take unexpected shots and today we had the opportunity to do that,” said Diaz-Colon during a post game interview to Monica D’Ippolito. “We realized that it works for us, and we can do it in the SUNYAC’s and we’re here to play and we’re ready to start our winning streak today.”
The Hawks are looking to take their attacking mentality on the road into next week’s matchups versus Brockport on Friday Sept. 24 and Geneseo on Sept. 25.
