Ursinus victory keeps Lady Jays flying high

The Hopkins women's soccer team (10-4-1) knew that they had a big game on their hands against the Muhlenberg Mules (6-4-3). Despite riding a three-game winning streak into the contest, the Lady Jays knew that if they could pull out this win it would propel them past Swarthmore and into sole possession of second place in the Centennial Conference standings.

"We remain level-headed because we understand that anything could happen on any given day. We go into a game ready to play our hardest regardless of what we accomplished the game before," said Hopkins' leading scorer, junior Molly Steele.

With this in mind, Hopkins proceeded to play a hard-fought game. Muhlenberg was able to get on the scoreboard first at the 15 minute mark when Mules forward Kimberly Hacker took a pass at the far side of the net from her twin sister Kasey and knocked the ball past Jays goalkeeper Karen Guszkowski for the score. This was the only goal that either team would score before halftime.

The ultimate test for the Blue Jays was how to rebound. They had not given up a goal since a 1-0 overtime loss to TCNJ on Oct. 1, and the Jays have not lost a game in regulation since a Sept. 29 loss to Haverford. The Lady Jays had eight shots on goal before halftime, but couldn't score on any of them.

"We were dominating and outshooting Muhlenberg in the first half and there was no excuse for being down 1-0," senior co-captain Kim Lane said. "[At Halftime] Coach asked us what we thought and I just went off saying 'This is not good enough anymore! We can't be trailing to teams we are better than. It is not good enough to just be dominating, out shooting them and playing well. We need the goals!'"

Lane's words obviously struck a chord with the team. Hopkins scored its first goal in the 72nd minute when Steele locked one of Muhlenburg's defenders into the corner and fought her for the ball, won possession and sent the ball near-post where freshman Allie Zazzali redirected it to Lane, who put it away for her fourth goal of the season. Three minutes later, Zazzali headed a ball off of a corner kick from Lane past Muhlenberg goalkeeper Kate Morrissey to give the Jays a 2-1 lead.

"Scoring that goal was awesome," Zazzali said. "Kim sent the 'perfect' ball into the middle on that corner kick. All I had to do was jump and aim it at the goal."

That would be all the Jays needed to pull out a victory. In the 87th minute, Steele dribbled in from 20 yards out and beat Morrissey for her seventh goal of the season.

Zazzali, Steele and Lane each finished with one goal (two points each) and one assist (one point each). For Steele and Lane, the three points gave them both 16 for the season, ranking them fourth in the Centennial Conference.

The assist, Lane's eighth, was good enough to place in second place in the conference. Hopkins outshot Muhlenberg in the game 22-4, extending its Centennial Conference lead in the shots category.

With three more conference games left on their schedule, including a matchup in the last game of the season against top-ranked Ursinus, the team knows they have to keep performing well. Only the top five teams (out of 11) in the conference make the playoffs.

The entire soccer team, especially Steele, realizes how important the remaining games are. "This is the most crucial part of our season because if we win our last three games, we win the regular season conference [title] and are then able to host the Conference Tournament, which is our main goal," Steele said.

The Blue Jays next take the pitch when they play host to Bryn Mawr at Homewood Field on Saturday, Oct. 20.