Women’s Soccer Routes George Washington 4-0 In Offensive Showcase

The offense of the Loyola women’s soccer team exploded Sunday afternoon as they scored four goals on their way to a victory over Atlantic-10 foe George Washington University. 

The Ramblers finally got on the board in A-10 play this season after a series of frustrating games where they lost 1-0 against Saint Louis University followed by two 0-0 draws against Duquesne University and Saint Joseph’s University. 

The Revolutionaries entered play Sunday 3-4-3 fresh off an 0-3 loss against La Salle University Sept. 21 which dropped them to 0-2-1 in A-10 competition. 

Head coach Barry Bimbi — whose team improved to 5-5-2 overall and 1-1-2 in conference play after the win — said scoring their first goal early in the game took “the weight of the world off our shoulders.”

“We’ve been playing some really good soccer, the ball just hasn’t been going in the net,” he said. “So to score that early one, you could just see everyone took a deep breath, everyone relaxed and we were able to get the second and the third before halftime.”

The opening goal came in just the fourth minute when fourth-year midfielder Madeleine Barone found first-year defender Skyler Bierker on a corner kick. Bierker used her head to propel the ball into the net, scoring her first goal of the season. 

Bimbi said the team had made tweaks to their approach to corner kicks and set pieces in practice before the game, which he said gave the team more energy and confidence in those scenarios. 

“We’ve created a lot of corner kicks, we haven’t been particularly dangerous,” he said. “So it’s a different service. We had Madeline Barone on the first one, a left-footed in-swinger, and we scored off it, so obviously that worked a little bit.”

Both teams traded unproductive possessions in the minutes following the initial Ramblers goal. In the ninth minute, first-year forward Zoe Hevey got a strong shot off which was blocked by a George Washington defender. 

The Ramblers pressed George Washington’s backline with their forwards throughout the first half which made it difficult for the Revolutionaries to push the ball downfield. George Washington managed to get two shots on goal in the first 15 minutes, both of which were saved by graduate goalkeeper Naya Lipkens who turned in another stellar performance.

Lipkens, in tandem with the Loyola backline, shut out the Revolutionaries en route to the third consecutive game where she has allowed zero goals. So far, Lipkens has given up just one goal in A-10 play.

In the 23rd minute, third-year midfielder Taylor Harrison thundered a hard-kicked ball past the diving third-year Revolutionary goalkeeper Grace Crowe, but it slammed into the crossbar and ricocheted straight back down before bouncing up and being collected by Crowe. 

In the 30th minute, after getting off several shots in the play leading up to it, Hevey scored her third goal of the season when she launched the ball from the top of the box past a diving Crowe. Third-year midfielder Jaimee Cibulka was credited with an assist on the play, helping the Ramblers go up 2-0. 

George Washington pushed hard after finding themselves in a deficit, but they were stopped by fourth-year defender Alaina Abel and the Loyola backline. A few minutes later, Abel made a huge defensive stop at midfield which secured possession for the Ramblers. 

Loyola capitalized on Abel’s play as in the 34th minute, Hevey found Harrison open in the middle of the field where she turned and kicked the ball into the net, earning her fourth goal of the season and expanding the Loyola lead to 3-0.

After the match, Harrison said she was happy to get on the board after not scoring during the last couple of games and was happy so many different Ramblers scored goals.

“It’s incredibly frustrating obviously when we can’t score, but we have those shots and we keep working and eventually we get on the end of the crosses and we get onto rebounds and it falls for us,” she said. “So we just have to keep believing and keep working just hard to get those little goals, and they mean the most.”

The Revolutionaries put together a few good possessions down the stretch and forced Lipkens to make one more save but couldn’t respond to the Rambler scoring outburst before the first-half buzzer sounded.

Loyola came out of the break and managed to produce several scoring opportunities in the half’s first few minutes but couldn’t convert. Inopportune George Washington fouls helped the Ramblers keep the Revolutionaries at bay. Fourth-year George Washington forward Lauren Prentice launched a dangerous-looking cross in the 53rd minute which was stopped by a leaping Abel. 

In the 61st minute Harrison played the hero once again as she scored her second goal of the game and fifth of the season unassisted after the Loyola press stole the ball deep on George Washington’s side of the pitch.

Following Harrison’s goal, Bimbi subbed nearly his entire starting lineup off, keeping just Lipkens and Abel in the game. Bimbi said it was great to see a lot of players who haven’t gotten much playing time get to experience the feeling of a Division I soccer match.

George Washington continued to try and work their way back into the match, but the Loyola players who came off the bench didn’t break and closed out the shut-out. Lipkens was only forced to make two saves in the second half as George Washington’s offensive woes continued to the final whistle. 

Bimbi said overall he couldn’t be happier with the result and performance by his team. 

“We’ve been telling them we’ve been playing great soccer and the ball just hasn’t gone in,” he said. “So hopefully we can continue with the good performances, continue to get the goals on the road against a really good UMaa team.”

After an opportunity to rest during an upcoming bye week, the Ramblers will travel to Amherst, Massachusetts where they will face the Minutemen of the University of Massachusetts Sunday, Oct. 1. First kick is scheduled for 12 p.m. 

Featured image by Aidan Cahill | The Phoenix