The Yale women’s soccer team’s road woes came to an end with a 2–0 win over non-league opponent Saint Peter’s on Tuesday night.
The Bulldogs (4–6–1, 0–2 Ivy) wasted no time getting on the board in their first ever game against Saint Peter’s. Midfielder Enma Mullo ’12 gave the team an early 1–0 lead when she directed a pass from Kristen Forster ’13 into the back of the net less than two minutes into the game. It was Yale’s first shot of the game.
The Elis lead was reinforced in the 16th minute, when forward Miyuki Hino ’12 beat Peahen goalie Erin Ronan to push the lead to 2–0.
Though they came out stronger in the second half, the Peahens failed to get past Yale goalie Ayana Sumiyasu ’11, who made four saves en route to her third shutout of the season.
The early goals came as a relief to players and head coach Rudy Meredith alike, since the team had been failing to take advantage of scoring chances in recent games.
“It was a really big game because we actually finished early chances, as opposed to continually getting chances and not finishing them,” Mullo said. “That kind of gave us a little comfort as we went on in the game. We weren’t panicking to try and score, because we had already scored.”
Meredith echoed Mullo’s sentiment and said that he was pleased that his team was able to break the trend of struggling to capitalize on scoring chances.
“I think we had a little bit more composure in front of the goal today,” Meredith said. “We actually scored on our first chance, which means for the rest of the game, the other team had to chase us and we didn’t have to chase the game.”
This win comes as a much needed morale boost to the team, who dropped a close game against their league rival Harvard over the weekend. The Bulldogs hope to build on their newfound road success on Saturday, when they will face Dartmouth in a key Ivy League contest.
“We have to play to win every game. We can’t play for a tie or any of that stuff,” Meredith said. “We can’t do nothing less than try to win.I give our kids credit. We played well under the circumstances and it’s a good feeling to be back on a winning track.”
Kick-off for the Dartmouth game is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. on Saturday in Hanover, New Hampshire. Yale will be searching for its first Ivy League win after having already lost to Princeton and Harvard.