TEANECK, N.J. – The Fairleigh Dickinson women's soccer team unleashed three goals on offense and limited Robert Morris on defense in a 3-1 Northeast Conference victory at University Stadium Sunday afternoon.
The Knights (3-7-3, 1-1-1 NEC) received a first-half score from sophomore
Andrea Garcia, her first of the season, and two more goals in the second half. Sophomore
Viktorija Miseljic netted the game-winner in the 49th minute off a free kick by Garcia, and Miseljic later assisted freshman
Noam Kedem on an insurance goal late in the game.
The win marked the Knights' first NEC victory of the season, and they won in dominating fashion, taking 23 shots as a team and allowing Robert Morris only two shots on goal (four in total) throughout the match.
"I know we didn't win on Friday, but I think it was a good weekend for us," head coach
Eric Teepe said after the match. "I think we really played well in both games. Today we finally found the net a little bit. We actually should have scored even more, but we need to learn how to put those games away earlier. At the same time, we've been struggling to find goals, so doing that today was good."
FDU played a strong game defensively, limiting the NEC's leading goal scorer, Robert Morris senior Jane Schleicher, to two shots and only one on goal. The senior had been taking four shots a game and scored nine times already this season.
"We talked about that they were going to be a team that really tried to pounce on any mistakes that we made, so we talked about making sure we were constantly moving the ball, and not putting ourselves in situation where they could put us under pressure," Teepe said.
The Knights held the Colonials (3-10, 1-2 NEC) without a shot through the first 29 minutes, and in that time, the home team fired off six shots of its own. Sophomore
Sofia Albertsson hit the right goal post with a shot in the third minute of play, and peppered the Colonials' goalkeeper with three of the early shots.
It was Garcia, however, that broke through in the 23rd minute for the Knights' opening score. She received a pass in the middle of the field from senior
Elma Kolenovic and took a couple of touches to her left before roping a left-footed shot past the keeper and into the net.
Garcia played a big role on FDU's second goal as well. After drawing a foul on the near side of the field, the sophomore played a free kick into the box and connected with Miseljic, who headed the ball into the net for her fourth score of the season and provided the Knights a 2-0 advantage.
The Colonials made things interesting later in the half with a goal off a deflection in the box in the 75th minute, but it did not take long for the Knights to respond. Freshman
Lea Egner controlled the ball in the 85th minute on the near side of the field and crossed into the middle. After deflecting off a defender, Miseljic touched the ball back to Kedem in the box, and the freshman launched a line drive shot straight into the top right portion of the net for her second goal in two games, giving the Knights an insurance score.
The defense did not allow Robert Morris another scoring chance the rest of the way.
"For us, it was important to get another score because we had more than enough chances, so we could have gotten a little nervous and gone into a funk and really allow them to put us under pressure," said Teepe. "We just came back and said alright, no. We're just going to go down the field and attack and push forward from there."
Junior
Amanda Fitzgerald made her only save of the match on a Schleicher shot in the 30th minute.
Kolenovic notched her third assist of the season and 13th career assist on Garcia's goal. It was also her 51st career point.
For Miseljic, she now leads the Knights with four goals and 10 points this season. She now has 10 career goals and 27 career points.
The win for the Knights snapped a two-match losing streak to the Colonials and was the team's eighth victory out of 10 home matches against the Colonials.
The Knights next go on the road to Bryant for a match Sunday, October 7, at 1 p.m.
