University of Massachusets Athletics
University of Massachusetts
Dayton
Women's Soccer Drops 2-0 Decision To Dayton
October 05, 2007 | Women's Soccer
Oct. 5, 2007
DAYTON, Ohio - Playing without a pair of defensive leaders, the University of Massachusetts women's soccer team dropped their second game in a row on Friday evening, falling 2-0 to Dayton. Mandi Back scored in the eighth minute to give the Flyers the quick 1-0 lead, while Jen Leslie scored an insurance goal late in the first half. The Minutewomen (6-2-1, 1-2 Atlantic 10) are back in action on Sunday when they head to Xavier to play the Musketeers.
Senior Christina Nunes and junior Melissa Toulouse were injured against Duquesne, and weren't available for action on Friday. As UMass Head Coach Jim Rudy said, "Losing Toulouse was very big, because we lost the leadership there. We didn't step up and pick up their frontrunners until they had targeted and connected to the midfielders, and then they're running at us."
"They'd get a ball forward and next thing you know it, their whole team is running forward," Rudy continued. "Lots of players coming off the bench with great ability. They just put us on our heals and accelerated the pace of the game."
Dayton jumped out to the quick lead at 7:59, when Back recorded her ninth goal of the season. She cleaned up a rebound from eight yards out and beat UMass goalkeeper Kristin Walker to make it 1-0.
Britt Canfield almost evened the score at the 27:46 mark. Her shot was deflected, and Dayton goalkeeper Niki Reed barely got back in time to make the save.
The Flyers continued to control play, and Jen Leslie made it 2-0 with only 28 seconds remaining in the first half.
Shots at the half were 16-4 in favor of Dayton, while the Flyers had seven corner kicks, to UMass' one.
Neither team got on the board in the second half and Dayton held on for the 2-0 win. The Flyers finished with a 32-9 shot advantage. With ten saves, Walker recorded double digits in saves for the second time this season. The other was on September 2 when she made 12 stops against Providence. Reed made six saves for Dayton.
"They were the better side, there's no two ways about that," Rudy said. "They were shooting from long range, short range. Their defense was real solid, their goalkeeper was good. We got beat by a better team today, and hopefully we'll get a crack at them later when we get everybody on the field."
The Minutewomen continue their Ohio road trip on Sunday when they play Xavier at 1 p.m. Fans can follow the action live through GameTracker. UMass returns home on Thursday, Oct. 11, when they host the University of Rhode Island at 4 p.m.
