This past weekend, the Hopkins women’s soccer team excelled in their match against the Bryn Mawr College Owls. In an exciting 9-0 victory, the Jays matched the all-time team record for goals scored and improved their record to 5-1-1 on the season.
The win was in many ways a redeeming opportunity for the Jays, who faced a disappointing loss four days earlier in overtime to The College of New Jersey.
With such a dominant showing, it should come as no surprise that the Jays saw a number of strong performances from their starting line-up and the bench alike. In fact, over the course of the game, nine different players tallied a point, and six different players tallied a goal.
The scoring began early, with a goal coming from junior forward Kristen Hori in the ninth minute. From then on, the Jays seemed nearly unstoppable, with goals coming from freshman defender Katie Whittington, sophomore forward Maddy Rocks, senior forward Bailey Monaco and freshman forward Riley O’Toole.
Meanwhile, defensively the Jays did not allow even one shot on goal. Undoubtedly then, this week’s Athlete of the Week could go to a number of players. But after becoming the 20th Hopkins player to score a hat trick, the title goes to senior forward Michelle Santangelo.
Though Santangelo has always been a key offensive player for the Blue Jays, her performance this weekend will undoubtedly stand out as one of the highlights of her collegiate career.
Santangelo first tallied an assist to Whittington to put the Jays up by two. She quickly followed up with a goal of her own in the 26th minute and then again in the 33rd minute off a penalty kick.
In the second half, Santangelo completed her first collegiate hat trick with a goal in the 71st minute off a cross from freshman midfielder Alexandra Damron.
Following Sunday’s match, Santangelo was kind enough to sit down with The News-Letter to discuss what the victory meant to the team and on a more personal level, what the hat trick meant to her.
The News-Letter: After Wednesday’s disappointing finish, what was the team focused on improving going into Sunday’s game?
Michelle Santangelo: That one was tough especially because it was our first loss of the season. Afterwards though, we immediately dove into the mentality of working out the errors we had during that game to make sure it would never happen again.
The defense went into high gear regaining their confidence and becoming the most organized I have seen during my time playing for Hopkins.
The same goes offensively, [we worked] on our finishing and movement and solidifying the connection between the midfield and forwards. I think that reflected a ton during this Sunday’s game.
N-L: How excited was the team to match its record of nine goals?
MS: I didn’t even know that, woah, that’s awesome! It’s always cool to see the team’s hard work reflecting itself to reaching accomplishments like matching the record.
What gets me more excited is knowing the huge potential of my team, that we could end up breaking those records and give ourselves a more recognizable status to be remembered for the future.
N-L: Do you enjoy taking penalty kicks or find them to be stressful? What was going through your mind when you stepped up to the spot in the 33rd minute?
MS: I love taking penalty kicks. It keeps the adrenaline going, and I always enjoy those one-on-ones with a goalie. I wasn’t really thinking much of the penalty kick except to just count my seven steps to get ready for the shot and try to not even look at the goalie. Penalty kicks are all a mind game, which is why it’s so fun to take them in the first place.
N-L: How did it feel to earn your first collegiate hat-trick?
MS: It was the most rewarding feeling ever. Coming off the bench, one hopes to make some contribution for the team and so that was my mentality right as I stepped onto the field. Obviously, I didn’t plan to get a hat trick, rather to just play my game and have fun, and I’m glad those goals were the results of that.
However, the best feeling was seeing how happy my teammates were for me and that’s honestly better than the hat-trick itself.
N-L: Do you have any personal goals for the remainder of your final season? Any team goals?
MS: Personally, I would like to now stay consistent and score goals during every game for the team and be that dangerous player defenders are nervous to go up against. Also, I would like to continue being that teammate that is an example to the rest of the team, especially the younger girls, to keep working hard, and the results will follow.
As a team, we continue to work on our organization in the back, which I feel has been great so far, as well as prove to our opponents that we are an offensive team as many of us are so skilled to score and could make an impact in the result.
Most importantly, we’ve aimed to be the most united team and enable everyone to have a voice and contribute in any way no matter what year they’re in. I really believe in this team, and I am undoubtedly hopeful that we will go very far in the season with the way we are playing together thus far.
Santangelo and the Jays will be back in action this Wednesday when they head to Camden, New Jersey for their game against Rutgers University-Camden.
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