Women’s Soccer Drop Heart Breaker on Senior Day

The MCLA Women's Soccer team played Salem State Vikings to a scoreless stalemate for 89 and a half minutes before allowing a goal in the game's closing minute.

Women’s Soccer Drop Heart Breaker on Senior Day
October 14, 2023
Video Box Score

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.—Following an uplifting celebration of their senior class, the MCLA Women's Soccer team allowed a single goal in the game's final minute to drop to 3-7-2 on the season while the visiting Salem State Vikings improved to 4-8-1.

THE BASICS:

  • Date: Saturday, October 14, 2023
  • Score: Salem State 1, MCLA 0
  • Records: Salem State Vikings 4-8-1 (MASCAC 3-2-0) | MCLA Trailblazers 3-7-2 (MASCAC 0-5-0)

HOW IT HAPPENED

  • Playing on a field that was greatly tilted into the MCLA defensive end, the Trailblazers' defense put up a fight to keep the sheet clean until the 90th minute when the Vikings' Jenna Mitza scored with 34 seconds remaining. The goal was Mitza's third of the year, and Cassandra Harrington was credited with her second assist.
  • Graduate student Alyssa Porter did her part to keep the game scoreless, with a bit over eight minutes remaining. After Tia Kareh stood up to a Salem State two-on-one, her clear attempt was blocked by a Vikings' forward who wound up firing a shot towards the goal, only to be foiled by an impressive sliding block from Porter.
  • A few minutes later it was it was the Trailblazers' keeper, Eva Eberwein, who did her best to keep the game even. Mitza had what was probably the game's closest scoring opportunity to that point in the game when she was able to dribble around an MCLA defender and got a shot off from about 10 yards out that Eberwein dove to her right to stop but only got a fingertip on the ball. That fingertip was just enough to redirect the ball away from the mouth of the goal, and it rebounded off the left post, where Eberwein pounced on it before a crashing Salem State forward could get to it.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

  • Eberwein recorded her fifth double-digit save game, stopping 10 of 11 shots on goal. The ten saves moved Eberwein into third place in the MASCAC with 91 saves on the season. She is two spots behind Salem State's Lilly Pfefferle, who leads the MASCAC with 137 saves and entered the day second in the nation in saves made.

UP NEXT:

On Monday, MCLA will be back in action when they play host to Russell Sage for a non-conference matchup with the Gators at Shewcraft Field. The teams will take the pitch for a 5 p.m. kickoff.