The Mount St. Mary’s Women’s Soccer team won their final match against Saint Francis University on Oct. 31. This victory marked the fifth win of the season for the Mountaineers, completing their overall record of the season being 5-13. Although Mount did not qualify for the conference tournament, there was a lot to take away from this final victory.
Coming into the match, the squad had already been through eight matches in which they lost by only one goal. Five out of those eight matches went into overtime, in which Mount lost all five. It was never a matter of being competitive, it was a matter of being able to close the deal.
The Mountaineers scored the only goal early in the match. It was made by Mount Forward Hannah Cooksey in the 13th minute. Cooksey led the team with six goals on the season. The assist was by Forward Elisabeth Rockhill and Midfielder Kalli Bell, who both led the team with eight assists on the season.
There is nothing harder in a soccer match than to keep a one goal lead until the final whistle, especially with a lot of time left on the clock. St. Francis finished the match with 18 shots at goal. 10 of those 18 shots were on target. It was a total team effort to get this win, but there were other factors that contributed to this hard-fought victory.
The match against Saint Francis was not taken lightly, for it marked the last game of 11 seniors that were on the 2021-2022 squad. Many of the players on the team wanted to get the victory for all 11 of their senior teammates. This created a higher level of intensity amongst all the players. It gave the team that boost they needed to pull out this close margined victory.
Arden Lembryk, the backup goalkeeper for the team, talked about the significance of the win for the seniors. “I feel like since we knew this was our last game and it was our seniors last collegiate game, I feel even the energy on the bench was different…we were there to kind of prove ourselves.
It was clear that this victory marked a change of mentality for this tightly knitted Mount squad. Given that it was the last match of the season, there was plenty to take from it into the off-season.
Mount Forward Elisabeth Rockhill had optimistic remarks when being asked about the off-season. “Carrying into next season, what we can take from this game is that it takes every player working as hard as they can for 90 minutes to win a soccer game. Winning is not easy, especially in the game of soccer and how low scoring it can be, and a single mental lapse in a game can be the deciding factor between a win or a loss.”
The overall season record for this team was not an indication of their skill. Many matches came down to the wire, and Mount opponents were pushed to the very limit to come out with victories. This win over Saint Francis will be a motivator of what this team can be, of what they are capable of. The future looks bright for this Mountaineer squad.