Women’s Soccer Continues to Roll Over Opponents

IAN McDONALD ’20
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
After an impressive 11-6 season in 2015, which saw the women’s soccer team land in the NESCAC semifinals, the Lady Bantams are off to a good start in 2016 at 3-1-2. They have had impressive conference wins over opponents Hamilton and Colby, as well as a thrilling overtime defeat against Williams. As the season progresses, the team is constantly improving. Last week the team had a dominating 3-0 victory against an out of conference opponent, Emerson College.
The teams went into the half with a 0-0 stalemate on their hands, but Trinity came out with some fire in the second half, scoring three goals in a staggering five-minute span after two solid attempts from Taylor Kirchgessner ’19 and Nicole Stauffer ’17.
Just three minutes after these attempts, Kirchgessner received the ball on the top left of the box and planted it in the back right corner of the net. Her next shot was turned away by the Emerson goalie, but Andi Nicholson ’17 was there waiting for the rebound and took a rip finding the back of the net giving the Bantams a 2-0 lead. Within two minutes, the Bantams were back in possession and Tricia Pollock ’20 was able to thread the needle with a pass to Kirchgessner, who put it away for her second goal of the game. The Bantams held onto this lead without relinquishing a goal all game.
When asked what makes this team successful, defenseman Sarah Connors ’18 attributed it to the “strong and experienced senior class” which is spearheaded by captains Sheena Landy ’17, Kendra Lena ’17 and Laura Nee ’17.
This Saturday the Colby Mules came into town. Unfortunately for them they would have the same fate as Emerson. The Bantams took down the Mules in a decisive 3-1 victory; all three goals for the Bantams were scored in the first half. Kirchgessner continued her hot streak from Wednesday with an early goal to give the Bantams a 1-0 advantage.
Kirchgessner also assisted Nee for the second goal. Connors then put the nail in the coffin when she scored her first goal of the season on a header from a corner kick. The Mules would score early in the second half to cut the Trinity lead to only two, but the difference would stay the same with the Bantams finishing off the 3-1 victory.
The victory against Colby, perhaps was not even the team’s greatest feat of the weekend. The Women’s Soccer team helped raise a total of $5300 on Sunday to fund research to find a cure for muscular dystrophy. The raffle winners were announced Monday.
Trinity’s next game will take place against Wheaton, a non-conference opponent, on Wednesday, Sep. 28, at 4pm at home.