SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College women's soccer team battled IWSOC #9 Vassar College to a scoreless draw in a back-and-forth Liberty League contest on a chilly and breezy Wednesday evening at College Park Field.
The draw keeps Union (4-3-4, 2-0-2 Liberty League) unbeaten in conference play with five matches remaining and the Garnet Chargers remain tied with Vassar (5-0-4, 2-0-2 Liberty League) for second place with eight points through four matches.
The tie also is Union's fourth straight shutout and extends the team's scoreless streak to 436:28, its longest stretch of scoreless play in almost two years.
Vassar outshot Union by a 7-1 margin in the opening half and held about a 60-40 edge in possession, but the Union defense did well to keep the Brewers from generating many good scoring opportunities. Senior
Maya Koster made two saves in the opening half, but her best play came off a curling corner kick from Gianna Panarelli that looked to be ticketed for the top corner before a beautiful parry kept the ball out of the net.
Possession was slightly more even in the second half, with the Garnet Chargers holding the ball for long stretches and creating chances that just could not be turned into shots. Vassar grew more desperate as the half went on, sending several long balls on goal that were easily handled by Koster, but the Brewers failed to make many connections in the attacking third thanks to the tenacious backline defense of senior
Ashley Sheldon, juniors
Gill Horvath and
Summer McSweeney, sophomore
Maeve Moran and first-year
Maya Atwood.
Koster made four saves in the second half to give her six for the match, extending her personal scoreless streak to 391:28. With her fifth shutout of the season and 11th of her career, the senior moves into a tie for eighth place on the school's career shutouts list.
The Brewers finished the night with a 15-2 edge in shots and a 6-0 advantage in shots on goal.
Union will return to action on Saturday with another key conference clash at Rochester Institute of Technology beginning at 2 p.m.
