Women’s Soccer Gets Back On Track

The Red Hawks rebounded from losing their home-opener against Stevens Institute of   Technology and won their next two games in non-conference play. The team dominated the College of Mount Saint Vincent in a 3-0 victory on Sept. 2 and followed up with a 2-1 victory against Brooklyn College on Sept. 5 to improve their record to 2-1.
The women’s soccer team struggled to get anything going in their debut against Stevens, as they were inconsistent and seemingly lacked chemistry. However, any problems they had seemed to vanish when they mounted a strong 3-0 victory against the College of Mount Saint Vincent the next day.
The team got out to a quick start as freshman midfielder Kasey Finn notched the first goal of her career at the 14:05 mark of the first half to push the Red Hawks to a 1-0 lead. The rest of the first half was marked by the Red Hawks dominating ball possession and keeping the ball down in Mount Saint Vincent’s end. The women created some offense off of their two corners and tallied five shots in the first half.
Montclair State quickly extended their lead to 2-0 when sophomore forward Tyler Madison knocked in a goal off of a rebound from a hard shot by Shawna Grabowski. Grabowski aided the Red Hawks in scoring again, as she scored her first goal of the season at the 74:09 mark to push the lead to 3-0. Junior forward Jennie Hornstra had two prime scoring opportunities within 40 seconds of each other, but ultimately missed both shots wide.
The Red Hawks would eventually beat Mount Saint Vincent 3-0. The women outshot their opponent by a 22-0 margin and also finished with six corner kicks. Freshman goalie Erinne Finlayson earned her first career shutout in the contest as well
The women went on the road for the first time of the season to play Brooklyn College on Sept. 5. The Red Hawks would emerge victorious in a 2-1 win led by freshman midfielder Ashley Koester and Madison.
Koester opened up the scoring in the contest by heading in a corner kick by junior defender Erin Sullivan to give her first career collegiate goal. Soon after, Madison came in off of a substitution to knock in a goal off of a pass by forward Sophie Calverley to extend the lead to 2-0 at the 21:02 mark of the first half.
The 2-0 lead was safe until the 72:46 mark, when the Red Hawks were called for a penalty inside the box. Brooklyn College’s Shan Nakhid-Schuster capitalized on the opportunity and scored on the penalty kick to trim the lead down to 2-1. Despite the late momentum by Brooklyn, Montclair State was able to hold Brooklyn to zero shots in the final 17 minutes. The women would win 2-1, pushing their overall record to 2-1 on the season.
Montclair State’s next game is on the road on Sept. 11 against Union College and they’ll also play at home on Sept. 13 against University of Rochester.