Box Score

Photo Gallery (images by Kier LaCrosse)

San Rafael, CA -- The Urban Knights women's soccer team gained their fourth point in five games on Saturday, pushing through two overtimes to tie the Lady Penguins of Dominican University at a score of 1-1. Hannah Emmett scored in the 7th minute to give the Knights an early lead, and that lead held through halftime. But Dominican scored the equalizer in the 84th minute to send the match to overtime. 

After a gritty two overtime periods that included three yellow cards, the score stayed the same, and neither team went home satisfied with a win. Erica Wheeler-Dubin almost sent everyone home in the 102nd minute, but her shot hit off the post and play continued on. The match was particularly rough on the Urban Knights, with the Lady Penguins racking up six yellow cards and 23 fouls. 

“I think the game got a bit too out of control in the second half. I feel my team was the dominant program on the pitch," head coach Aileen Nasypany said. "It seemed Dominican's way of stopping us was through fouls. Their team received a 2011 conference season high of 8 team yellow cards in one match, which included a team yellow card and one that was a double yellow resulting in a red. They fouled us 23 times, which is more than most games two-team total combined.”
The Knights did manage to get seven shots on goal, and continued to rewrite their record books, adding to their total points (41), goals (15), and assists (11). Megan Bucci had three shots on goal, but was turned away each time by Lady Penguins goalkeeper Megan Herring. 

“I made sure to do a lot of coaching from the sideline in the second half and through the overtime period to keep my team composed, make sure that we played our style and continued to create opportunities," Nasypany said. "We had two more golden opportunities with a corner sent in by Erica and another when Thorolfsdottir was taken down right outside the box before she was about to put the game winner away. Thorolfsdottir sliced the ball cleanly off the direct kick and it was just a hair high as it grazed the top cross bar and fell back down toward the six yard line. Dubin followed the kick but her redirection of the ball sent it just wide.”

Margret Thorolfsdottir did not add to her point total, and was actually held scoreless on the day, but Hannah Emmett, whose point total last season was enough to set the bar that the Urban Knights have been reaching for, did add to hers. Emmett is alone on top of the career points list for the Knights, and now sits at 18 points in her two years on the team. 

After making some personnel switches, which included moving Sophie Meneses to the outside for Haily MacDonald, sophomore Magda Torres stepped in and contributed a strong defensive performance marking Dominican's top attacker in Juianna Bratsberg. Bratsberg has now had to deal with Meneses and Torres, the top two defenders for the Knights, and is still without a goal against Academy of Art's defense. Nasypany also had high praise for freshman Louise Fillingham, calling her the midfielder total package.

"She might not find her way to the stats," Nasypany said. "But her witty defensive style of play disrupts the flow of every team we match up against and she is the connection from our back line possession wise to find our top performing offensive line."

"We did not get the win on the road today but I saw a lot of great qualities from my team," Nasypany said. "We scored early and fast, we generated more qualities opportunites than our opponent, we kept our cool in high pressure situations, and our overall communication and team work ethic was outstanding. I am proud of their continous growth as a program and look forward to see them perform next week against Grand Canyon."