Women's soccer splits weekend games in New England

For the second weekend in a row the Buffalo women's soccer team came away with a win, a loss and shutout for sophomore goalkeeper Amy Coron.

On Friday afternoon, the Bulls stampeded over the winless Vermont Catamounts for a 2-0 victory. The win improved the Bulls record to 2-1, and was the second shutout in as many games for Coron. Vermont (0-2-1) never mustered much of an attack as Coron only faced six shots.

The Bulls gave Coron offensive support early in the first half as junior forward Ashley Turner threaded a pass behind the Catamount defense to fellow junior forward Heidi Griffiths who finished the play for her third goal of the season.

The Bulls built its lead to a 2-0 margin just six minutes later, when sophomore midfielder Janessa Banwell redirected a crossing pass from junior forward Kelly Vander for her first goal of the season. The team held onto its two-goal lead for the remainder of regulation and left Burlington riding a two game win streak.

"We struggled a little bit in the second half," Tassy said. "But I felt like we got the two goals and were able to do what we needed to do and hold on for the win."

Tassy's Bulls looked to carry the momentum of its victory into Sunday's game against Brown, but ran into a Bears team that showed cohesiveness on both the offensive and defensive sides of the field. Brown came away with the win, riding an offensive surge that produced 28 shots and a lopsided final score of 6-0.

Battling inclement weather thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Ernesto, the teams fought for 30 scoreless minutes until Brown junior Susie Keller headed a crossing pass into the Buffalo net. Brown freshman Melissa Kim then found the net again for the Bears just over five minutes later to put the Bears up 2-0.

"The weather was a major factor," Tassy said. "We played in pouring rain. Their first goal was a let down. The last two goals were own goals so the score should have looked a lot closer and competitive."

Brown's co-captain, Kathryn Moos, had an impressive day. She tallied four total points and highlighted it with a goal that evaded the Bulls' Coron. Brown goalkeeper Brenna Hogue guarded the shutout for the Bears while not even having to make a save. The Buffalo offense could only manage seven shots, none of which were on net.

With the Bears (2-0) running away with the game, Coron was benched after she allowed four goals, in favor of freshman goalie Rachel Cavosie, who saw her first collegiate action. Cavosie was just one of several young players that saw time in the game. In total, 21 different players appeared in the rain-dampened contest. The team will try to build off of the positive aspects and learn from the negative ones in what was the first road trip of the season.

"When the score got out of hand we had an opportunity to look at some of our younger players and our second goaltender in case anything happens to Amy (Coron)," Tassy said. "Over the weekend we showed that we can play but the thing that plagued us was the inability to communicate. Our players need to verbalize to their teammates."

The Bulls (2-2) will look to bounce back when they take its even record on a trans-continental trip to the UC-Irvine Nike Shootout for a pair of games this weekend. The Bulls will take on UC-Riverside on Friday and then take on the host school UC-Irvine on Sunday.

Buffalo's next home game is schedule for Friday, September 15 at UB Stadium against cross-town rival Canisius at 4 p.m. The Mid-American Conference schedule begins for the Bulls on the following Friday against the Miami RedHawks in Oxford, Ohio at 4 p.m.