Oct. 11, 2009

Box Score

Washington, D.C. - The Georgetown University women's soccer team battled back from an early deficit before fighting to hang on for a 3-2 win over Cincinnati this afternoon. After allowing the first goal, tallies from Samantha Baker (Long Beach, Calif./Wilson), Marissa Wing (East Greenbush, N.Y./Columbia) and Kelly D'Ambrisi (Trumbull, Conn./Lauralton Hall Academy) earned GU the advantage. A late goal by Cincinnati (7-7-1, 2-4-1) made things interesting down the stretch but the Hoyas (10-3-2, 4-2-1) were able to run out the clock and secure the victory.

"This was another six-point game for us, much like Friday," Head Coach Dave Nolan said. "The distance we are able to gain from Cincinnati in our own division is huge. Now we have two games next weekend that can really go a long way to help us reach our goals for this season."

Georgetown's first great opportunity of the game arrived in the 15th minute when Camille Trujillo's (Albuquerque, N.M./St. Pius X) close-range shot was saved by UC's Andrea Kaminski. Meanwhile, on the other side of the pitch, UC was putting long-range shots on Georgetown goalkeeper Jackie DesJardin (Sunnyvale, Calif./Archbishop Mitty). The junior came up big with four saves before Katie Johnson scored her first goal of the season in the 34th minute for a 1-0 Bearcat lead.

"Despite the goals, Jackie came up big for us today when we needed her," Nolan and Assistant Coach Naomi Meiburger said. "She made some saves that you cannot teach. Her athleticism in goal helped her tip a couple of those shots over the bar."

Trujillo had another great chance saved by Kaminski but earned a valuable corner kick for the Hoyas with less than five minutes remaining in the half. Caitlin Durkee (St. Paul, Minn./Como Park) sent the ball into the box and Baker got her head to it for the equalizer. The goal, Baker's third of the season and 11th of her career, swung the momentum back in GU's favor heading into halftime.

The Hoyas started the second half aggressively with the wind at their back and controlled the tempo early on. Seven minutes in, a long throw from Baker was loose in the box and Wing slotted a ball along the ground that found the back of the net. It was the first goal of Wing's career and handed the Hoyas their first lead of the day, 2-1.

"Marissa's height and stature helped allow her to win some battles in the air," Nolan added. "Today was a game where she could make some plays and possibly create some chances so I put her in there and I wind up looking good because she, to her credit, scores a pivotal goal for us."

After the goal, Cincinnati regained some composure and began to fight back against the GU defense. However, the Hoyas back-line stood tall and DesJardin made two more saves before the Hoyas answered.

After a corner-kick try went awry and a foul was called against the Hoyas in the Bearcat offensive zone, GU broke through to provide some cushion. Ingrid Wells (Upper Montclair, N.J./Montclair) crossed the ball into the box for Sara Jordan (Indianapolis, Ind./North Central). The forward played it down and left the ball for a trailing D'Ambrisi who calmly drilled home her fourth goal of the season for a 3-1 Hoya lead.

Jordan, Wells and Baker, the three players who assisted on the day's final two goals, are ranked first, second and fourth all-time in helpers for the Hoyas.

Cincinnati got back in the game with 17 minutes remaining when a throw-in by Brooke Eberly went to teammate Melissa Bigg. The senior saved the ball along the near end-line by kicking it up in the air backwards along the goal mouth. The wind curled it back toward the Hoya goal and it pinged off the far-right post to cut the Blue & Gray lead to 3-2.

"I just don't like giving up goals,' Nolan said. "I thought we played well enough to not allow any but we just have not found a way to put together a solid 90 minutes defensively in a while."

After the unlucky play, Georgetown controlled the tempo for the remainder of the contest and ran out the clock with good possessions. For the game, Georgetown out-shot Cincinnati 15-11 and earned seven corner-kicks as compared to one for the Bearcats.

The Hoyas host Pittsburgh on Friday at 3 p.m. Georgetown will be providing Gametracker live scoring for the match this weekend. In addition, Georgetown will also be streaming live video on Hoya Vision, the school's All-Access web channel. Play-by-play will be provided by Marc Serber. Links to Gametracker and All-Access can be found on the women's soccer schedule on GUHoyas.com.