The Temple women’s soccer team had a rough time of it this past weekend, losing back-to-back games at Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
In a Friday night game versus the Rams of Rhode Island, the Owls were blown out, 6-1. Shannon Kittlesman was the catalyst for the Rams with two quick first-half goals in the Atlantic 10 match-up. Unfortunately for the Owls, the scoring barrage did not end there. Rhody’s Catherine Zanni and Sarah Johnston would complete an excellent Ram first half with goals of their own.
Rhode Island extended its lead with goals by Erica Young and Heather Kasparek.
The only bright spot for the Owls was senior Julie Marx’s second-half goal.
The rest of the game belonged to Rhode Island, as the Rams simply attacked the Owl goalies Courtney Woytowicz and Kristin Bakia with 23 shots on goal. Temple could muster only seven total shots on the game.
The Owls met with similar adversity when they faced another A-10 rival in UMass. The Minutewomen beat the Owls, 6-0, led early by Katlyen Jones with three first-half goals.
Massachusetts continued its scoring spree in the second half with three more goals: one from Anna Morozuk and a pair from Amy Mink.
The Owls were shut down offensively by the defense of goalies Julie Podhrasky and Kelly Nigh. The most telling statistic was again shot on goal, as UMass outshot the Owls by a 21-7 margin.
The A-10 season has been disappointing for the Owls thus far. Temple suffered close early losses to Virginia Tech and George Washington before suffering this latest catastrophic weekend.
The season is far from over, however, and head coach Seamus McWilliams will look to engineer a turnaround for the women’s soccer team. Clearly, the Owls need to be more aggressive on offense, having been outshot in their last two games by a 3-to-1 margin.
Temple’s defense needs to improve as well, especially when facing an early barrage by opponents.
The woman’s soccer team will have its first opportunity to rebound from its early conference losses on Friday, as the Owls host Xavier at 4 p.m. at Temple Stadium.
Be the first to comment