By Eric Botti
Elm Staff Writer
The Shorewomen had games against Cabrini University and McDaniel College this week. The Shorewomen beat the Cabrini Cavaliers 3-0 on Tuesday, Sept. 25, but lost to McDaniel 2-1 on Saturday, Sept. 29.
The first half of the game was rough for the Shorewomen. Shots were taken by freshmen Emily Jacoby, Erin O’Reilly, and senior Olivia Sabatino, but all were saved by Cabrini’s goalie.
The Shorewomen just barely held a 6-5 shot advantage by the end of the half.
“We were frustrated by our first half performance,” said Head Coach Tom Reilly. “We were not playing up to our own standards and were without our usual energy and effort levels.”
The players agreed with this feeling.
“My initial reaction to Cabrini was that our team as a whole was not playing to our full potential in the first half,” O’Reilly said. “We were all very frustrated by halftime so we came back out to prove ourselves as the team we really are.”
And prove themselves they did in the second half of the game. The Shorewomen were able find their second wind to score three goals in the second half.
“The girls came out for the second half with a renewed sense of purpose, and played very well for those 45 minutes,” Reilly said.
Senior Arianna Sabatino scored the first goal at 57:13 with a shot off a breakaway pass from senior Lauren Neary.
O’Reilly scored the next two goals within two minutes of each other. She headed the first of her goals in off a corner kick by freshman Brianna Parise at 70:52.
The second goal she scored on a breakaway after a ball played ahead by senior Lindsay Russell. O’Reilly went on to win Goose Nation TV Shorewomen Player of the Game, which she says she couldn’t have done without the other 23 girls on the team.
This game meant a lot to the Shorewomen, as “Cabrini has gone to the NCAA tournament regularly so we were pleased to be able to deal with them successfully” Reilly said.
The Shorewomen knew from the start that Saturday’s game versus McDaniel would be a tough one.
“McDaniel has been in the conference playoffs and NCAA’s the past several years and are a well-respected program,” Reilly said.
The Shorewomen started off very strong when they scored just 2:21 into the game. Senior Arianna Sabatino sent a pass through a defender’s leg into the box where twin sister Olivia Sabatino sent a shot into the goal from the right for the early lead. This was the only score the Shorewomen were able to make.
The Shorewomen held their lead until well into the second half when McDaniel was able to score two goals within six minutes of each other and hold that for the rest of the game. The final score was 2-1, McDaniel prevailing in the end.
This week’s games bring the Shorewomen’s overall record to 6-2. The Shorewomen have two conference games this week on Tuesday, Oct. 3 at Swarthmore and Saturday, Sept. 6 at home against Dickinson. The Dickinson home game will be played at 4 p.m. at Roy Kirby Jr. Stadium.