October 11, 2009

RAMS FALL TO LATE GOAL AT DELAWARE, 1-0
Box Score

NEWARK, Del. – With a young team, there are going to highs and lows during the year.

The Virginia Commonwealth University women’s soccer team experienced that all in one weekend as the Rams fell 1-0 on the road to the Fightin’ Blue Hens of the University of Delaware on Sunday afternoon in Colonial Athletic Association action.

“Delaware’s a tough defensive team and they’ve showed that in conference play. We saw it firsthand today,” Co-Head Coach Tim Sahaydak said. “We’ve got to be able to work harder and out battle them and we weren’t able to do that today.”

After bouncing back from a tough weekend at home last weekend to rattle off a 2-0 win at Drexel on Friday, the Black & Gold (6-6-2, 2-3-1 CAA) couldn’t muster up any offensive opportunities against a tough Delaware back line.

“We knew coming into the year it might be a struggle offensively, depending on how long it took our freshman and young players to buy into our system,” Sahaydak added. “These games are going to happen when you have six, seven, eight underclassmen on the field. We’ll get back on the practice field and continue work on improving with every game.”

It was a defensive battle for much of the game with the majority of play happening between the 18 yard lines.

VCU’s only real chance of the game came in the 26th minute when a corner from sophomore Meaghan Dullea (Virginia Beach, Va.) was just two steps ahead of a header from junior Myriam Bouchard (Quebec, Quebec City). After one shot was block, the ball ended up on the right foot of senior Amanda Adams (Salem, Va.), who lifted a shot towards the top of the goal, but Delaware goalkeeper Annie Bevan was able to knock it away.

Delaware would pick up the pressure to start the second half and it finally came through in the 76th minute when Ali Miller found Stephanie Rinschler along the left sideline. Rinschler dribbled her away around a diving Kate Hudson (Clarksville, Md.) and deposited her second goal in as many games into the back of the net to give the Fightin’ Blue Hens a 1-0 advantage.

The Fightin’ Blue Hens would pack in the defense and stifle any Black & Gold chances the rest of the way to secure the victory.

VCU returns to action this Friday when it hosts the Tribe of William & Mary in a 7 p.m. contest at VCU’s Sports Backers Stadium.