Box Score
Purchase, NY (Oct. 14, 2013) – To steal from the cliché, "What a difference a day makes."
Coming off back-to-back conference losses last week, Purchase got back on track in a big way Monday night at home, bouncing back in a 2-0 shutout win over visiting Sage. The women's soccer team thrust itself back into the playoff picture and is now 2-2 in the Skyline Conference and 4-7 overall. The win also dropped Sage to 2-9 on the season and 1-5 in league play.
The Panthers may have played their most complete game of the fall, especially from a home-game perspective.
The defense, anchored by goalkeeper Jess Lindsay (SR/Rochester, NY) deserves a gold star for their supreme effort. Sage outshot Purchase 11-4, including 6-3 in the second half, but was rebuffed when it counted most, especially late in the second half on a penalty kick that Lindsay recorded two brilliant saves on. The Purchase keeper blocked the initial shot and then came out in front of the goal and sealed the 2-0 win by rejecting the rebounded shot from Shelby Sarraino.
Those two saves, along with a diving stop earlier in the game, highlighted an evening of rejections on the part of the Panthers and Lindsay in goal. She finished with seven saves over 90 minutes en route to the shutout win.
Sage keeper Teagan Waddingham took the loss and finished with two goals against and two saves on the night.
Purchase lost the corner kick margin (7-3) and also out-fouled Sage, 9-4, but the defense and capitalizing on opportunities was clearly the difference.
Only three minutes into the game, Panther midfielder Gia Sergovich (JR/Watervliet, NY), playing against her former team after transferring to Purchase this fall, served up a perfect corner kick that Marykate McGee (SO/East Rockaway, NY) headed right to Melissa Valencia (JR/Medellin, Colombia), who promptly headed the ball into the goal for a strikingly quick 1-0 lead.
For Valencia, it was her first goal of the season.
Forty plus minutes later and that's the way the game would stand heading into the second half.
Less than 10 minutes into the final stanza, McGee provided the extra cushion Purchase would need. She scored her second goal of the season off an assist from Annette Elson (SO/Las Vegas, NY), taking the ball from the top 18 on a square pass before dribbling five yards and finishing off the tally.
The Panthers will look to build off of tonight's win Wednesday at Farmingdale State. It is a loaded week for Purchase. The Panthers play Wednesday, Friday and Saturday – three road games with Friday's matinee, a YU home game set to be played at Purchase.
"This is a win we can definitely build off," Purchase head coach Stephanie Janasiewicz said. "Sage is a very good program and we are happy to get back to .500 in the conference. Farmingdale, Yeshiva and the College of Mt. St. Vincent are all important games for us. Tonight was a good step forward."
