September 11, 2009

RAMS DEFEND HOME TURF WITH 3-0 WIN OVER LOYOLA
Box Score

RICHMOND, Va. – On a date that will be forever symbolic with defending our home country, the Virginia Commonwealth University women’s soccer defended their own turf with a 3-0 victory over Loyola on the opening night of the VCU/Impact Sports Invitational.

“Coming home after four straight home games, we were focused on showing pride in this place and defending our turf,” Co-Head Coach Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak said. “It’s good to see we were able to do that with pitching a shutout tonight.”

A stifling defensive effort held the Greyhounds (3-3-1) to just two first-half shots and allowed the Black & Gold offense to grab a hold of the momentum for the start.

Precession passing was the key to VCU’s early pressure. Just seven minutes in, sophomore Heather Hovanesian (Centreville, Va.) slid a pass through the Loyola defense to a cutting Jasmine Riley (Arlington, Va.), but her shot went just right of the net.

Three minutes later, it was Riley’s passing that helped the Black & Gold grab a 1-0. She sped down the left sideline sent a pass through the box where Amanda Adams (Salem, Va.) gave a touch pass to sophomore Azania (Taboao Da Serra, Brazil) for a wide open goal, the first of her young career.

Freshman Gabrielle Wilson (Woodbridge, Va.) (right) used fancy footwork to get through the Greyhound midfield and lifted a crisp pass to a cutting Hovanesian, but a Loyola defender was able to knock down the shot to keep the score at 1-0 in favor of the Rams.

Senior Myriam Bouchard (Quebec City, Quebec) led an outstanding effort by the Rams back line, which held Loyola without a first-half scoring chance.  

“We really played well tonight as a defensive unit,” Bouchard said. “I’m really excited about how we’re coming together as a back four and we just continue to work hard and improve game by game.”

The second half was much of the same with the VCU midfield creating numerous scoring opportunities for the front line.

Twice in the first 30 minutes of the second half Hovanesian would try to create scoring opportunities, first senior June Hartman (Virginia Beach, Va.) (left) in the 62nd minute and second Riley in the 72nd minute, but neither times were able to be converted into goals.

On a day in which her Uncle Glenn’s bravery will forever be remembered, Hartman found the back of the net in his memory off a pass from Bouchard to extend the Rams lead to 2-0 in the 76th minute.

Hartman was not done as she found fellow senior Sarah McAulay (Midlothian, Va.) in the 83rd minute. McAulay blasted her first career goal for the Black & Gold to push the advantage to 3-0.

“It’s really been a nice surprise to see how balanced our scoring has been,” Roberts Sahaydak added. “Tonight you saw three different players convert and we had several more opportunities for others to score. It’s been good.”

The stifling defense would hold on for the shutout with a couple nice saves by senior Kate Hudson (Clarksville, Md.), who registered her first shutout with the Rams.
Earlier in the day, Eastern Michigan got by Richmond, 1-0, in the first game of the VCU/Impact Sports Invitational.