<rleton Women’s Soccer team faced a busy weekend with games on Saturday and Sunday in addition to last Wednesday’s match at Macalester. Although the weekend produced a split, one win and one loss, the Knights fortunately defeated conference foe Gustavus, 1-0, on Saturday afternoon.
Coming off of three straight matches without a goal, the Knights’ offense was hungry to find the back of the net in an important conference match against Gustavus. After several near misses from the Knights’ offense, Niki Tomita ’12 beat two defenders and sent a terrific cross to Sarah Hagerty ’13, who tapped in the gamewinner for her first goal of the season. Carleton goalkeeper Beth Ashinsky ’13 posted her 13th career shutout, keeping the Gusties off of the board for the entire 90 minutes. The hard-fought win helped the Knights climb to 2-2-1 in the MIAC, bringing them within 6 points of conference leader St. Olaf.
Trying to follow up their key conference victory over Gustavus, the Knights came back out on Sunday against the visiting Norse of Luther College, located in Decorah, Iowa. The Norse struck the first blow in the non-conference match when Kendra Ledel ’12 blasted a shot just off of Ashinsky’s fingertips in the 8th minute. The Norse’s lead lasted the majority of the match, making the Knights’ play slightly more frantic as they struggled to net the equalizer.
Cassie Burke ’12 came to the Knights’ rescue, chipping a ball over Norse keeper Cydney Haaland with only five minutes left in regulation. Ashinsky was credited with the assist, the first of her career, thanks to her well played clearance on the defensive end of the field.
Going into overtime, the Knights appeared to have all of the momentum, notching several close attempts on goal. Unfortunately, victory proved elusive as Norse midfielder Elly Arend managed to slip past the Knight’s defense and score in the fifth minute of overtime.
For Carleton, the goal was quite a disappointment, dropping their overall record to 5-5-1 (including a win on Wednesday against UW-La Crosse). However, the Knights move up in the MIAC standings and will have plenty of chances to erase the sting of defeat this week, including another important conference matchup against Augsburg on Saturday at Bell Field.