The women’s soccer team opened its two-game weekend homestand against Rhode Island on Friday with a 2-1 loss in overtime.
“We weren’t great today,” coach Matt Gwilliam said. “We didn’t perform today as a group from the top down and it was a shame.”
Rhode Island opened the match as freshman midfielder Ellie Bailes scored her third goal of the season past Owls’ redshirt-senior goalkeeper Tara Murphy in the fifth minute, giving the Rams the early 1-0 lead.
“It was a bad goal to give up and I guess we responded as we didn’t concede again until overtime,” Gwilliam said.
In the first half, Temple had one shot on goal as a team, which was enough to tie the score at the end of the first half as freshman defender Erin Lafferty scored her first collegiate goal with 37 seconds remaining in the first half, assisted by junior defender Karly O’Toole.
“It felt great,” Lafferty said about scoring her first collegiate goal. “I thought the referee was calling it back so I didn’t really know what to think, but then he called it a goal and it felt great.”
In the second half, both the Owls and Rams responded with strong defense and physical play, as neither team was able to score as regulation ended.
Although Temple was unable to net their second goal of the match, the team played better and allowed for more opportunities offensively in the second half, Gwilliam said.
“We were better in the second half offensively,” Gwilliam said. “We were a bit more patient than we were in the first half.”
The very physical match was capped with four total yellow cards, two handed out for each team.
“It was a very spirited game,” Gwilliam said. “It was really fun to be a part of. Both teams really battled and that’s the way the game is supposed to be played.”
After 90 minutes of play, the score remained 1-1. In the 92nd minute of the overtime match, it was Rams’ midfielder Bailes who notched her second goal of the match, giving Rhode Island the 2-1 win.
With the loss, Temple falls to 4-9-2 (1-3-0 in Atlantic 10 Conference), while Rhode Island improves to 8-6-1 (1-3-0 in A-10) with the win.
The Owls next match will be on Sunday, Oct. 14, at 1 p.m. at Temple’s Ambler Sports Complex as they take on Massachusetts in an A-10 conference match.
John Murrow can be reached at john.murrow@temple.edu.
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