(Lowell, Mass.) – Despite allowing a season-high 27 shots – including 13 placed on-goal – the Delaware State women's soccer team (1-3) pulled out a tough 2-1 road victory Friday night over the UMass Lowell River Hawks (0-3) for its first win of 2015, behind goals from freshmen Samantha Bahr and Taylor Love, in addition to a stellar night in the net by sophomore Michele Lammers finishing with a career-high 12 saves.
“We did a really good job as a team of preparing for this game”, said head coach Kerri Scroope, who now needs three more wins to become DSU's all-time leader. “We made adjustments to our lineup to give our offense a boast and it worked with tonight's tough win.”
With this victory, the Hornets avenged a gut-wrenching 2-1 double overtime home loss to the River Hawks last year, in addition to avoiding a fourth consecutive 0-4 start. UMass Lowell, meanwhile, remained winless to conclude its season-opening three-game homestand.
Trailing 1-0 in the first half, the Hornets knotted the match during 30th minute with forward Ayanna Smith hooking up with Bahr (1) via a crossing pass. The eventual game-winning goal, which turned out to be DSU's first lead of the season, occurred during the 52nd minute with defender Morgan Durham sending a free kick deep into River Hawk territory, resulting in Love eventually controlling the ball and scoring.
As the second stanza progressed, so did UMass Lowell's aggressiveness on the offensive end – tallying 16 shot attempts in the final 45 minutes. Nevertheless, Lammers' tremendous second half efforts featured eight saves - including multiple game-saving stops at close range. The River Hawks actually managed to tie the game with a little less than four minutes to play with midfielder Carolyn Ragon firing a shot just out of the reach of Lammers. Luckily for the Hornets, Ragon was ruled offsides by the officials, nullifying the game-tying score.
For Lammers, this is the second time she's totaled double digit saves in 2015, surpassing a previous career-high mark of 11 occurring in DSU's 5-0 loss at Temple.
“She came up huge tonight. She was definitely the MVP for tonight's game,” added Scroope. “She's worked hard to get to this point, considering she had some really big shoes to fill in regards to replacing [Katelyn] Koslosky.”
When the final buzzer sounded, the Hornets finished with seven shots, while the River Hawks had six corner kicks to DSU's zero. However, the foul count was in DSU's favor, as UMass Lowell committed 21 infractions, compared to 13 for the Hornets.
“They overcame a lot of adversity tonight and we showed a lot of mental and physical toughness,” said Scroope. “This team has been through a lot over the years and this win really did a lot for our confidence.”
Coming up, the Columbia Blue & Red will conclude their brief two-game road swing next Wednesday against Rider (7 p.m.).
