Women's soccer finishes strong

11/07/08 - The University of Rhode Island women's soccer team (3-8 A-10; 7-12-1 overall) finished its season on a high note after defeating St. Louis University on a cold and windy Sunday afternoon. The victory followed the Rams' collapse Friday afternoon, as it was defeated 3-1 to the heavily favored University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The Rams welcomed No. 25 Charlotte to Kingston on Friday and after a slow start to the game, Rhody struck first with 32 minutes remaining in the first half. Sophomore midfielder Kaylen Shimoda blasted a corner kick into the box, and senior defender Sarah Helldoerfer finished off the play, as she headed the ball into the back of the net for her third goal of the season.

Rhode Island had three goal-scoring opportunities that could have helped put Charlotte away. In the 34th minute, junior forward Kassandra Spitler nailed one off the crossbar and three minutes later, sophomore forward Adrienne Ruhe Lischke suffered the same fate as she nailed one off the crossbar as well.

With 20 seconds remaining in the half, Rhody had another chance to score when freshman forward Alexis Veith crossed one a few feet from the goal. The pass sailed just above the leg of Lischke and Rhody had to settle for a 1-0 halftime lead.

Charlotte gave the Rhody faithful a scare just more than three minutes into the second half when it blasted one into the back of the net, past a diving Agnes Arnadottir. The goal was denied after the Charlotte forward was whistled for going offsides. The Rams kept its 1-0 lead into the 79th minute.

Charlotte's sophomore midfielder Sam Huecker nailed one through the back of the net with 10:26 remaining with her team's sixth shot on goal. Less than three minutes later, junior midfielder Hailey Beam was tripped by Arnadottir, leading to a penalty kick.

Beam's kick was blocked, but Charlotte freshman midfielder and forward Heather Carter took full advantage of it. Carter blasted the rebound through the back of the net, giving Charlotte a lead it would not relinquish.

Charlotte added an insurance goal with 1:52 remaining, when Beam was awarded another penalty kick. Beam scored easily for her 14th goal of the season. Rhode Island was outshot on goal 7-3.

"That's a top 25 team in the country," coach Zach Shaw said. "And I think that what happened is we didn't score a second goal. We hit the crossbar three times which is just unbelievable but that has been sort of typical of our season. It's just incredible the number of chances [we've had]. I have no complaints about the way we've played at all and I wouldn't have changed anything except maybe the last 10 minutes."

Despite the collapse, Shaw says he feels his Rhody squad showed its true potential in the first 80 minutes.

"We're greedy and everybody wants instant gratification," Shaw said. "We're losing two seniors and we're going to add some very good players to the group and all of these kids are going to get better as well. They're all still so young. We have a very very bright future but immediate gratification is nice once in awhile."

Rhode Island's senior day was not nearly as eventful as Friday's game but Rhody was awarded the win and showed the potential that coach Shaw has stressed all season long, as it defeated St. Louis University.

"It's really nice," Shaw said. "This is the first time we've ever beaten St. Louis since they've been in the conference. I think we played really well and I was really proud of how hard they fought. I think that we learned something from the tragic events late in the Charlotte game."

URI got on the board in the fourth minute when freshman forward Stephanie Santos scored her team-leading sixth goal of the season. The goal was assisted by both Alexis Veith and Adrienne Ruhe Lischke. With the assist, Ruhe Lischke ended the season second on the team with 12 points.

"[Santos is] doing a good job and she's a little bit more efficient," Shaw said. "I think that she's creating a bunch of chances and I think that it's going to be exciting to watch her continue to develop in the next couple of years."

Rhode Island headed into halftime outshooting St. Louis on goal 3-1 and the second half was very unproductive, as those statistics remained stagnant throughout the remainder of the game. St. Louis saw one of its best chances to score when junior midfielder Ashley Hayes was met at the corner of the goal by both Arnadottir and sophomore midfielder Kaylen Shimoda. Hayes was denied and St. Louis did not see a better opportunity to score after that.

"I think we've come so far," Shaw said. "We play a different system and we play a different style than most of the teams in the country and it takes a little while for people to get used to that. I think we have a really really strong foundation and I'm really excited about what's going to happen next year and the year after and the year after. We have a foundation now and we have the framework that will allow us to be really successful."

Shaw added, "I'm sad that the season's over because this is a team that, I think, had we managed to scrape through a couple of the games earlier and I think if we had the opportunity to redo our schedule things could have been drastically different, but you only get one go-around.