The Berkeley Beacon

Issue date: 10/9/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Chelsea Frajerman Emerson freshman defender Meghan Foehl takes possession of the ball during the Lion's 5-0 victory over Simmons College on Oct. 4. The Lions are now 6-3-1 on the season.

The Emerson women’s soccer team rolled to their fourth straight victory on Oct. 4, blowing past Simmons College by a margin of 5-0. From the first minute up to the final whistle, the Lions controlled the entire pitch, scoring almost at will.
The victory brought their record to 6-3-1 (4-2 in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference). The Lions also moved into third place in the GNAC.

“It feels good,” said Katie Franzeo, a junior captain and studio production major. “We’re playing faster, winning fifty-fifty balls and running off the ball. All that makes it so much easier to play successful soccer, and that’s what we’re doing.”

After starting out their season 2-0-1, scoring 12 goals in their first three games, the Lions found themselves in a scoring lull that plunged them into a three-game losing streak. In their past four games, however, Emerson has recaptured that early season magic, scoring 14 goals and surging towards the top of the GNAC standings.

Head Coach Katelyn Haggerty Angotto credits the scoring spree to the team’s hard work during practice.

“We’ve been working real hard on quicker play and stronger attack,” Haggerty Angotto said. “When we put it all together, all that work pays off, like today. We’ve been practicing really hard on finishing in the offensive end, and it showed today. If we play like this the rest of the way, we become very difficult to stop.”

So far this year, the Lions have been shut out three times, accounting for all three of their losses. However, in their six wins, the Lions have outscored their opponents by a margin of 24-6, showing just how dangerous the team is when its offense clicks—when they add intensity to the fine-tuned finishing they have worked on in practice.

“We’re definitely coming out of our slump,” said forward Lindsay D’Andrea, a sophomore writing, literature and publishing major who netted a goal in the game. “We came out very strong today, and when we do that we’re very successful. We’ve put together a great string of games, and we definitely needed it.”

Emerson scored within the first 10 minutes thanks to a well-placed header from freshman forward Genna Opatut off a corner kick from junior midfielder Kendra Davidson. D’Andrea scored her goal shortly after, followed by a free kick that was drilled home by junior forward Rachel Lerma, curving just out of reach of the Simmons goalie and into the back of the net.

“We definitely needed this win,” said Franzeo, stressing the importance of beating Simmons, which before the game was only two spots behind Emerson in the conference. “We needed it not only for our mental state of mind, but also to send a message to the rest of the league—we’re for real. We needed to make a statement, and I think we did.”

The Lions finished the game with a second goal from Lerma and one from freshman defender Meghan Foehl that all but ended Simmons’ hopes for a comeback. Even with the win, both Haggerty Angotto and the team are very aware that they’ll need to play even stronger for their upcoming games against St. Joseph’s College and first-place Norwich College.

“It’s great seeing the girls playing well,” Haggerty Angotto said. “They’re enjoying themselves, working hard, and they step up when they need to. We’re going to continue to work on playing for a full 90 minutes. We’ve got some difficult games coming up, and if we can play exactly the way we did today, we’ll go far.”

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