SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – Despite an excellent effort in goal from senior Kelsey Hartsoe, the Union College women's soccer team dropped a 1-0 match to William Smith College, ranked seventh in the latest United Soccer Coaches Div. III national poll and sixth in the latest D3soccer.com national rankings, on a chilly Friday afternoon at College Park Field.
 
Union (5-5-1, 2-2-0 Liberty League) hung with the nationally ranked Herons for much of the afternoon, even though William Smith (10-2-0, 6-0-0 Liberty League) finished with a 15-4 edge in shots. Hartsoe did her best to keep the visitors off the scoreboard, finishing with six saves, including several diving stops to limit the damage.
 
Both teams fought for possession early on in the match, with only a pair of off-target shots through the first 14 minutes. Hartsoe made a great save in the 15th minute to keep William Smith off the board, diving to deny Julia Keogh from close range. The Herons started to assert themselves slightly after that, eventually breaking through in the 35th minute when Sarah Olick-Sutphen took a cross from Merilyn Hinrichs and found the far corner for her first of the year.
 
Hartsoe made several more superb stops in the second stanza to keep her team in the match. She denied Keogh in the 63rd minute with a diving stop, then stopped Keogh again in the 72nd minute in a one-on-one chance. Julia Ferrelli also prevented a goal in the 79th minute by blocking an Amanda Adams shot after Hartsoe forced her to the endline for a sharp-angle attempt.
 
Union will get back to action tomorrow afternoon, when the Dutchwomen host Ithaca College for another key Liberty League match at College Park Field beginning at 2 p.m.