The women’s soccer team’s season came to a close this past Sunday when they fell to William Smith College in the finals of the East Coast Athletic Conference Northeast Regional Championships.
The last game of the season resembled many of the Yellowjackets’ prior contests in the fact that UR started a little flat and by the time they started playing to their ability they found themselves in an inescapable hole.
“William Smith came out harder than us, we were just a little flat. Inconsistency and a slow start plagued us.
“By the time we turned it around, we found ourselves down 2-0. We started pushing harder, and as a result left opportunities to counter open,” Head Coach Terry Gurnett said.
UR was outshot 5-4 in the first half, but, knowing it was the final game of the season, finished with a surge – outshooting the Herons 9-6 in the second half. The pressure just was not enough, and UR fell 4-1 to a William Smith team that was just stronger and faster on that day.
Senior midfielder Sarah Crimmins recorded UR’s lone goal of the contest in the 87th minute off an assist from junior sweeper Sarah Tarka.
In order to get to the ECAC finals, the Yellowjackets had to defeat another local rival, Nazareth College, in the semifinal round.
In their first meeting, the two teams battled 110 minutes through two overtimes in a 1-1 draw.
This time, the Yellowjackets came out firing and brought their best to the table.
“The Nazareth game showed what we are capable of as a team. It was great to be on and display our very best,” Gurnett said.
Everybody contributed in the sound 4-0 beating of Nazareth. “Each player worked hard and it showed,” Gurnett said.
The scoring came in a bunch early on in the game. Within the first 26 minutes of the game UR found themselves on top by a 4-0 margin and held that margin for the remainder of the game.
Freshman forward Anne McMahon put the Yellowjackets on the board with an unassisted goal in the fifth minute of the game.
McMahon’s goal was shortly followed by another unassisted tally off the foot of freshman forward Emily Urbanczyk.
Senior Jenica Schmidt got involved next, when she put away a ball from junior midfielder Karen Forsythe 11 minutes into the action.
Forsythe then connected with senior forward Alison Collins who played off a good ball to Urbanczyk who put the ball in the net for her second goal of the day.
The 4-0 defeat sent Nazareth – the Northeast Regional ECAC Championship’s number one seed – packing.
“Our last three weeks we showed a lot of improvement and did a lot of things really well,” Gurnett said.
Unfortunately, good performances did not necessarily translate into great results.
“It would have been easy for the women to give up at any time but we kept fighting through the end,” Gurnett said.
“Also, I’m so proud of the seniors who have really helped keep our team together playing good soccer, despite bad results.”
The women finish the year 11-8-2 and sixth in the UAA with a 3-4 record.
Despite the loss of yet another talented senior class, Gurnett will gather his team, reflect on the season and come out ready to embark on next year’s campaign.
Fitzsimmons can be reached at afitzsimmons@campustimes.org.
