Having played the other UMass (B) team to a draw last Saturday, we braced ourselves for today’s match with UMass A, telling ourselves to bring our best soccer to them using our 3-center midfielder formation. The drizzle let up just in time, and ~15C/60F temperatures were perfect.
At first, neither team could hold the ball very long. After UMass got a corner kick in the 3rd minute and a free kick from their third, Claire took a free kick.
Just after Katie Fearon took a free kick earned by Julia, Katie set up Julia for her shot to the upper left side of their goal in the 15th minute. Then Kelly earned a free kick and Ella fired a shot that sailed over their cross-bar.
Kalā got aggressively tackled, and Molly took the ensuing free kick in the 22nd minute. Five minutes later, Lizzy earned a free kick before Caris came up big to save a shot that ricocheted toward our goal.
Rachel blocked a shot for a UMass corner in the 30th minute before Abby set up Mudia for her shot that was blocked. Just before the end of the half, Zanna took a free kick.
We spoke about well we improved during the first half, with better passing and sending the ball back to switch sides, and pushing up the midfield to close the gap.
Kalā cleared a UMass free kick and UMass had a shot go wide of our goal. Kalā earned a free kick before Ais took a corner kick in the 45th minute. Kelly took a free kick and Mudia’s solid shot went over their cross-bar. After UMass’ free kick, Caris came out quickly to squash a shot and was given a yellow card for dissent. UMass converted their penalty kick to even the score.
Zanna’s shot was saved in the 53rd minute before Julia’s shot was blocked and she earned a free kick that was taken by Katie F. Ella’s shot went over their cross-bar before Molly’s clearance resulted in a corner for UMass.
Nathalie had a great shot saved in the 60th minute before Caris smothered a UMass chance. Nathalie had a subsequent shot blocked, earning a corner for Katie F, whose shot in the 65th minute was blocked for a corner taken by Nathalie. Ella’s shot went over their cross-bar. It felt as if we were close to scoring again.
Ella had another shot saved in the 69th minute before she fired a rocket-shot into their net to give us the lead in the 70th minute.
After UMass put a shot over our cross-bar, Caitlin had her shot go over their cross-bar and earned a free kick for Sara to take; in the last minute of the game Caitlin put her shot from the right side of the field into the upper left corner of their net to put us two goals ahead.
We felt that it was our best playing - we won possession and kept it with passes that connected, kept the ball moving by seeing the next pass and we created many good scoring opportunities - the refs and even their keeper complimented our playing!
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