After an up-and-down start, the Binghamton University women’s soccer team headed into the weekend looking for two good performances. The Bearcats opened on the road against Lehigh University Friday then returned home for a Sunday matinee against Fairleigh Dickinson University at the Bearcats Sports Complex. The team split its games, dropping the first to Lehigh 1-0 before finishing strong with a 2-0 win on Sunday.
The Lehigh Mountain Hawks (1-0-1) limited the Bearcats (3-3) to only seven shots en route to their 10th consecutive home victory.
Both teams had trouble getting anything going through the first 30 minutes of action in what was shaping up to be a defense-oriented game. But in the 35th minute, Lehigh broke through on a long ball from midfield that bounced over the head of Bearcat sophomore goalkeeper Carrie Martin and into the net.
Sophomore midfielder Kaitlyn Cook scored on a header from freshman defender Connie Gormley midway through the second half, only to have the goal disallowed because of an offsides call. Binghamton managed only three shots after that and dropped its third game of the season.
Martin finished with six saves, but Lehigh goalkeeper Ashley Blanks only needed to make one as the Hawks outshot the Bearcats 14-7.
With two consecutive losses in the back of their minds, the Bearcats headed into play on Sunday afternoon with a heightened sense of urgency. Despite temperatures in the high 80s and a muggy atmosphere, Binghamton’s efforts finally paid off in a dominating 2-0 win over FDU (0-2-1). It was the squad’s third shutout of the season.
“I thought it took us a couple of plays before we got into our rhythm,” head coach Sarah McClellan said. “After the first 10 minutes we got into a rhythm and we kind of felt out the opponent and knew what we had.”
In the 20th minute, senior forward AnnMarie Rizzi took a pass from junior forward Sarah Furminger and chipped it past FDU goalkeeper Stephanie Tanzi to put the Bearcats in front, 1-0.
“It was my first goal of the season so it was really exciting,” Rizzi said. “We’ve been working on offense and especially shooting. That’s the way you win games, by taking shots and scoring.”
In the 55th minute, Furminger put the game on ice with a goal of her own. After stealing the ball from an FDU defender, the forward laced a shot into the lower right corner of the net.
“I just pressured the defense with the other forwards and got the ball, got past the defender and found the open net,” Furminger said. “I think we were ready from the last game because we had a great game but didn’t get the result we wanted, so with that in mind we just wanted to come out strong today.”
Unlike the Bearcats’ effort against Lehigh where they were outshot two to one, the team posted 28 shot attempts to FDU’s six on Sunday.
“We didn’t want to allow them to get any tempo so we wanted high pressure all over the field and that required a lot of work from our players,” McClellan said. “I thought they did a really good job of putting the effort in to maintain the pressure on FDU. [They] never got any tempo and they’re not a bad team. They’re a quality team and we just defended them well all over the field.”
With a 3-3 record, 2011 has been a back-and-forth season thus far for the Bearcats. For McClellan, the question becomes how the team is able to build upon Sunday’s win and string together a few victories to keep the momentum going as conference play approaches at the end of September.
“The next step is our game on Wednesday night and we want to put another good performance in after this one so can we start getting some consistency,” she said. “The results will follow but the performance has to come first.”
Wednesday’s kickoff against Bucknell University is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex.