From vcuathletics.com
RICHMOND, Va. – With less than a week before the start of the season, the Virginia Commonwealth University women’s soccer team showed they are ready to go with as they dropped a hard-fought, close-knit contest to the Washington Freedom, 3-2 on Saturday evening at VCU’s SportsBackers stadium.
Washington is a former member of the original WUSA, the first professional league for women in the United States.
The Freedom came to play early on as both Ali Andrezejewski and Christie Welsh had scoring chances in the first five minutes of action, but the Black and Gold defense was able to keep the game scoreless.
Senior Megan Flanagan (Franktown, Colo.) set up a scoring opportunity for the Rams in the 18th minute as she lofted a corner kick that fellow classmate Samara Stephen-Dowd (Vienna, Va.) got a head on, but the shot was deflected wide to keep the game scored at 0-0.
Washington was able to get on the board in the 21st minute of action as Emily Janss dribbled up the right sideline and slid a beautiful pass to Lori Lindsey, who dribbled around the VCU defense and fed Andrezejewski on the other side of the box for the first goal of the contest.
Freshman Paige Pierson (Sterling, Va.) made her presence felt at the end of the first half as she picked a loose ball with just under 10 minutes left and blasted a shot from the top of the box, but Freedom goalkeeper K.J. Spisak was able to come up with the stop to keep the game at 1-0 in favor of Washington.
Senior keeper Lauren Hardison (Midlothian, Va.) came up with a fantastic save in the 38th minute as Welsh picked up a loose ball with no one in front of her and the net, but Hardison was able to make a diving stop.
The Freedom kept the aggressive offensive style of play going as Lindsey took a feed from Kele Golebiowski and slid a shot into the bottom right corner of the net to push the Washington lead to 2-0 with six minutes left before the intermission.
Former VCU standout Jenn Parsons showed she’s still got it as she extended the Washington lead to 3-0 as she gathered control of a loose ball and ripped a shot into the left side of the net.
The Black and Gold came out of the locker rooms on fire as they put the pressure on the Freedom defense with several scoring chances early in the second half.
Pierson continued her strong play as she sent a beautiful feed to junior standout June Hartman (Virginia Beach, Va.) who found the back of the net to make the score 3-1 in the 58th minute of action.
Flanagan’s corner kick ability was on display once again in the 84th minute of action as she lofted a pass through the middle of the box where senior Meg Khandan-Barani (Radford, Va.) leaped and headed the ball past Spisak to bring the Rams within one at 3-2.
The Freedom outshot the Black and Gold by a tally of 19-14, with Hardison having a strong night with seven saves in the contest.
