Women's soccer loses footing in A-10 Conference games

10/30/08 - The University of Rhode Island women's soccer team fell to 2-7 in the Atlantic 10 Conference after being shutout 1-0 at Fordham University and defeated 4-1 at La Salle University. The weekend defeats snapped a two-game winning streak for Rhody. Rhode Island was outshot Friday against Fordham, 15-6, and was outshot 8-3 on goal.

Agnes Arnadottir played well in her fourth start in goal, stopping seven of Fordham's eight shots.

Katie McDermott gave Fordham all the offense it needed with her fourth goal of the season with just under six minutes remaining in the first half.

Offensive execution was hard to come by for Rhode Island, as it was shutout for the sixth time overall and the fifth time in the conference. Rhody forwards junior Kassandra Spitler, sophomore Adrienne Ruhe Lischke and freshman Stephanie Santos were all denied on their goal-scoring opportunities.

"We are still struggling to score goals, but I really do feel that Fordham was one of the best teams we have played this fall," coach Zac Shaw said. "We have played very good soccer again, and have been able to dominate the game in some respects, but obviously scoring goals is what soccer is all about. We have been able to execute well, it is just frustrating for everyone that the ball has not been going into the goal as much as we would all like."

URI produced better offense in its loss to La Salle on Sunday, but its defense did not perform nearly as well. Sophomore goalkeeper Jackie Fede allowed four goals for the first time all season.

La Salle's sophomore forward, Alex Conley, scored as many goals in three minutes as the Rams have scored in its last three games. Both goals were unassisted and were Conley's fifth and sixth goals of the season. La Salle took its lead into halftime and held onto it for more than 19 minutes into the second half.

Santos cut La Salle's lead in half when she scored her team-leading fifth goal of the season. The goal was assisted by sophomore midfielder Kaylen Shimoda.

"Stephanie Santos is going to be a big time goal-scorer and she is far ahead of where I expected her to be this year," Shaw said. "As she grows, matures, gets stronger and has a spring to continue to work on her finishing, she will continue to develop as a dangerous goal scoring threat and should be able to translate the chances she gets into goals."

La Salle added two more goals in just a two-minute span when junior midfielder Melanie Gamble scored her sixth and seventh goals of the season. She converted her first goal on her second penalty kick of the season. Her second goal was assisted by Traci DePasquale. It was DePasquale's second assist of the game and her ninth of the season.

URI will look to end its rebuilding season on a high note as it hosts first place University of North Carolina at Charlotte and No. 5 St. Louis University this weekend in Kingston.

"Our team has played an incredibly difficult schedule this fall," Shaw said. "I think that is the way you get better. Though we have not won as many games as we had expected to, we have proven we can compete with some of the best programs in the country, and this weekend will be no different."

He added, "We need to go into each game expecting to win as these are our last two chances to play as a team in a meaningful game for a long time. I am very proud of how the team has played this year. We have gotten better each game and we have laid the foundation for what is going to be a very, very successful program in the coming years.