URI women's soccer competes in Boilermaker Challenge Cup, wins one match, loses another

09/17/08 - The University of Rhode Island women's soccer team competed in the Boilermaker Challenge Cup in West Lafayette Ind. during the weekend and came home with one win and one loss. The loss came at the hands of the host school, Purdue University, by a score of 3-1 on Friday, but the Rams came back strong and beat Indiana State 5-0 on Sunday.

Freshman Stephanie Santos, sophomore Adrienne Ruhe Lischke, and junior captain Amanda Thomas were named to the all-tournament team.

Santos scored the only goal for URI in the loss to Purdue, which was her first collegiate tally in the 45th minute that tied the game at 1-1.

"That really shook their confidence," head coach Zac Shaw said.

He said that he is proud of the way the team has played thus far this season against a high level of competition.

"My goal in our pre-conference schedule is to see a high level of play, you have to see a high level before you can get there," Shaw said.

The Rams have seen plenty of that high level so far, already facing national powers Texas A&M, Boston University, and now Purdue.

The 4-team Boilermaker Challenge Cup was set up for the Rams to face the Boilermakers, and for each of those teams to play a second game later in the weekend. URI faced Indiana State on Sunday. After battling adverse weather conditions and a delay during the game, came away with the 5-0 victory.

Junior Kassandra Spitler scored twice for the Rams, while freshman Agnes Arnadottir, sophomore Ina Bjorklid and Ruhe Lischke each scored once.

These tough games at the beginning of the season will help in the development of the Rams' young players, Shaw said.

"There is no substitute for confidence," Shaw said.

He added that he is hoping his young players will gain more confidence putting up a fight against worthy opponents than they would by beating teams that they should. The team is incredibly young this year, having only two seniors on the roster. The Rams scored 37 goals last season; players no longer on the team scored 32 of those goals.

Even though the team is young, it has not been much of a factor with its performance against tougher teams.

With a record of 2-4-1 it might appear the team has gotten off to a slow start, but it has played a much harder schedule than most of the teams it will play and will be very well prepared for its conference games Shaw said.

Next up for URI is a match against the University of Vermont at home on Wednesday night. The Rams last played Vermont in 2005 and were successful in that game, coming away with an 8-2 victory. Shaw acknowledges that Vermont has improved a lot since then and this will be another tough test for his young and talented squad.