Kicking off the 2015 AUS women’s soccer season with their home opener at Wickwire Field, the women’s soccer Tigers fell to the Mount Allison Mounties 3-2 on Saturday.
Tigers head coach Jack Hutchison felt that the team performed well but needed to be more vigilant on the back end.
“90 per cent of [the match] was really good,” said Hutchison. “You can make a lot of mistakes attacking … but when you make a mistake on defense, that mistake can result in goals, and [today] our mistakes did exactly that and came back to haunt us.”
The Tigers owned possession in the first half, controlling the ball seemingly at will early on. First team AUS all-star Victoria Parkinson fired two shots off the woodwork in the opening 20 minutes of the match.
The Tigers worked another glorious opportunity early on as the ball ricocheted around in the Mountie’s six-yard box before just barely being cleared off the line by a Mounties defender.
At the 28-minute mark of the half, the Tigers drew first blood as first-year striker Shea Jeffery-Novak hammered home a header for her first AUS goal in her first AUS match to put the Tigers up 1-0.
Just moments after Jeffery-Novak’s goal Doriana Homerski delivered a left foot shot from 15 yards out that was pegged for goal before Mounties keeper Tessa Ritchie made a giant diving leap to her right to make the save.
At the 36:21 mark, Homerski found herself with another chance from the left edge of the six-yard box and this time she would not be denied using the left foot to give the Tiger’s a 2-0 lead.
Only two minutes after Homerski made it 2-0, the Mounties made a quick rush on the attack. Tigers keeper Tilda Hadley made a diving save on the initial shot but second team AUS all-star Amanda Volcko pounced on the rebound to make it 2-1 at the half.
The second half started with more Tigers possession, yet they were unable to work anything past Ritchie.
Just over ten minutes into the half, Volcko made an outstanding solo rush up the middle of the pitch. She chipped the ball past the Tigers defender, headed the ball over the keeper and then won a footrace to tap the ball into the open net and even the score at 2-2.
Three minutes after her solo theatrics, Volcko booted a ball from about 40 yards out high into the air towards the Tigers net. Hadley was not able to get her mitts on it firmly enough to keep it out giving Volcko the hat-trick and the Mounties a 3-2 lead.
The Tigers owned the ball for the rest of the match yet could not find a way to get on the board again.
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