MIT Women's Soccer Team Falls to Nationally Ranked Wheaton College
The MIT Women's Soccer Team (6-4, 1-1) suffered its toughest loss of the season on Saturday, falling to Wheaton College (10-1, 2-0) in conference play 5-0.
Wheaton, traditionally one of the strongest teams MIT plays all year and ranked amongst the top teams in the country, won its 66 consecutive regular season game against NEWMAC competition with the victory.
Senior defender Chi-Fong Wang had her best game of the season against offensive powerhouse Wheaton, playing tough and battling hard all day. Her performance was noted by the Wheaton head coach, who commented about being very impressed by Chi-Fong after the game. Senior captain Mary Harding also showed her great leadership ability by pulling the team together and keeping things positive on the field, despite a few miscues that gave up goals to Wheaton. Outside backs junior Karen Davie and sophomore Jodie Wu had a long and exhausting day facing some of the fastest wing players they will see all year, but they hung with it right through the final whistle.
Senior captain goalkeeper Kat Vater faced numerous tough shots on the day and made some good saves that kept the score what it was. Kat fell to 4-4 on the year with the loss. Still, with seven games remaining on the year Kat has only given up nine goals.
Seniors Ashleigh Leonard and Andrea Staid, junior Janine Hopmans and sophomores Andrea Bradshaw and Kat Routhier all contributed in the midfield against a traditionally strong midfield team, having to defend hard all game.
Junior forward Amy Ludlum and freshman forward Liz Theurer created some good scoring chances early in the game, but were unable to put any on the board. They were held scoreless for the first time in three games. Freshman Julia Roberts came off the bench to provide some quality minutes up top.
***Player of the Match***
Freshman midfielder Katie Pesce was outstanding in the match against Wheaton, faced with the difficult task of marking Wheaton's main offensive cog and all-conference player midfielder Angelamaria Viscomi. Viscomi is one of the top scorers in the NEWMAC and leads Wheaton in every offensive category. Despite
giving up five goals in the loss, not a single one can be attributed to anything done by Viscomi, who was held without a point by Katie. It is one of the few times on the year that Viscomi was held without either a goal or an assist. She was consistently frustrated and out-muscled by Katie, who play every single minute of the match and was easily the team's best player and clear choice for Player of the Match.
With Wheaton College behind MIT, the team is keeping positive and now looks to continue its strong play through the remainder of the NEWMAC season and into the conference tournament. MIT next plays on Tuesday night at Clark University with kickoff at 6:30 pm.