WMVO Good Times Great Oldies
GAMBIER, Ohio – The Kenyon College women’s soccer team (6-5-5) hosted the College of Wooster Fighting Scots (11-2-3) for the 2023 season’s penultimate game on Wednesday evening at Mavec Field.
In a close match that saw 15 second-half shots from the Owls, the team could not find the back of the net, eventually falling 1-0.
The game’s only goal came in with just under nine minutes remaining in the first half. Up until that point, while the shot total was notched at one apiece, Kenyon held a 6-0 corner advantage resulting in some promising scoring chances. However, on Wooster’s first corner of the game, Lily Glaza quickly passed the ball to Naomi Mann, who from the near side of the field about ten yards up from the goal line and five yards outside the box sent a rocket of a ball that curved and perfectly found the top right corner of the net, just past a diving Ariel Kite.
In the first, the Owls outshot the Scots 6-5 and had a 6-1 advantage in corner kicks. Kite had three great saves in the closing minutes of the half after the goal to keep the 1-0 score after 45 minutes.
After halftime, the Owls came out with an offensive fire, as Sadie Gould and Talulla Sheridan, who led the team in shots on goal, tested Scots goalkeeper Kamryn Nelson right as she entered the game, subbing in for Amanda Flory at the half.
Throughout the remainder of the second half, the Owls had several bursts of offense that were all turned away by the Scots defense. In the 64th minute, a series of shots from Morgan Baker, Kit Ross, and Hailey Moss were all on target but Nelson again knocked them all away. Julianna Granetzke and Sheridan added excellent chances in the 71st and 83rd minutes, but Nelson stood tall.
The two best opportunities for the Owls came in the final five minutes of play, as the team scrambled to get the ball to the net in any way possible. Ross threaded a pass through the heart of the Wooster defense from the top of the box to Moss in the 86th minute, who beat the goalkeeper soundly but hit the right post.
Three minutes later, Alex Sokolik found Moss again in front of the Wooster net. She made a move to break free from her defender and sent a low shot that looked to be going in, but Nelson just barely stuck her right foot out to tip the shot away. After a flurry of shots and chances in the second, the game ended in a 1-0 loss.
The Owls 15 second-half shots added to the team’s highest shot total in a loss of the season with 21 total shots for the game, with seven of them on goal. Kenyon could not get anything past the Wooster defense, especially the goalkeeper, as Nelson’s six-save effort for Wooster in the second half is her second-highest career total.
The loss drops Kenyon to 6-5-5 on the year. The Owls’ final regular season game is on Saturday, October 28 at 1:00 p.m., as Kenyon hosts the Oberlin College Yeowomen in Gambier.
