For a second time this week, NYU women’s soccer blew out their opponents, as they took charge in their 10-3 win against the College of Staten Island yesterday in Staten Island, NY.
“CSI just wasn’t on our level,” said freshman forward Melissa Menta, who scored two goals. “We beat them by a landslide both in fitness and ability.”
Sophomore forward Amerlia Hammerl noted that setbacks early in the game did not hurt the team’s morale or focus.
“Melissa’s first goal was really great. We had just gotten scored on, and the goal was something we definitely should have prevented, but we got right back in there and scored immediately after,” said Hammerl. “It was great that we didn’t let it get us down and were able to keep focused on playing our game and turn things back around.”
Sophomore forward Cami Crawford and junior forward Erin Ahmed also had two goals to their name in the match.
“All three of them played great,” said junior forward Leslie Smith, who could not play because of an injury. “Erin had a great header goal which was pretty awesome.”
Hammerl, junior forward Imani Ribadeneyra, junior midfielder Natalie Beach, and sophomore midfielder and forward Claire Shanahan also made their ways onto the score sheet.
Hammerl attributed the win to the hard work in practice.
“We’ve been working a lot on our attacking movement which obviously helped us a lot with the 10 goals,” Hammerl said. “You could very visibly see how much our movement has improved since the first game.”
“I have to give credit to our offensive movement,” Smith said. “After we picked up the speed of play, our runs off the ball were leaving huge gaps in their defense.”
The team has also been honing on their defensive techniques in practice.
“Lately we’ve been working on the defensive shape in combination with our attacking movement,” Hammerl said. “It’s been helping us a lot to work directly against each other like that and get a feel for what real game competition will look like.”
The hard work has paid off on the field, as the Violets have won four straight and now have 6-2 overall record this season.
The Violets will play a University Athletic Association game at Case Western University on Saturday, Sept. 29, in Cleveland, Ohio, at 5 p.m.
A version of this article appeared in the Sept. 26 print edition. Sara Levy is a deputy sports editor. Email her at [email protected].
