Box Score Sept. 24, 2011
Box Score
Junior M Gia O’Connor (Dracut, Mass.) scored her first goal of the year and senior M Maddy Bissaillon (Merrimac, Mass.) scored on a free kick as UMass Lowell defeated Southern New Hampshire, 2-0, Saturday afternoon in a Northeast-10 Conference women’s soccer clash at Daniel J. Larkin Field.
With the win, UMass Lowell improved to 4-2-2 overall and 3-1-2 in the NE-10 and enjoys a week hiatus before hosting Franklin Pierce next Saturday at 1:00. Southern New Hampshire slipped to 4-4-0 overall and 2-3-0 in the Conference.
Sophomore G Jill Carlson (Lexington, Mass.) stopped six shots en route to her first career clean sheet. “Jill did a lot of good work,” said head coach Elie Monteiro. “She was alert, she timed things well and cut off a lot of crosses.
“We defended well,” he added. “We possessed the ball better in the attacking third of the field which was the focus of practice was the last few days. We denied them opportunities to find wide players. I thought it was a good overall team performance.”
O’Connor opened the scoring in the 34th minute when freshman M Courtney Stefano (Oakdale, Conn.) crossed low from the left side to O’Connor, who finished nicely into the upper left corner from eight yards out.
“It settled us down a bit,” said Monteiro. “Gia followed it all the way. It went between the defenders and the goalkeeper and it went all the way to Gia.”
Bissaillon doubled UMass Lowell’s lead in the 64th after junior F Keanna Santos (Lakeville, Mass.) was fouled roughly 23 yards out near the left corner of the box. Bissaillon expertly steered the free kick over the wall into the top left corner of the goal.
“That was everything we could’ve wanted,” Monteiro said. “It was very well struck over the wall and bent away from the goalkeeper.”
UMass Lowell nearly went 3-0 ahead in the 76th minute when freshman F Brittany Russo (Danvers, Mass.) rung the post. Junior F Colleen Soper (Auburn, Mass.) was there for the rebound, but struck it over the bar.
UMass Lowell outshot Southern New Hampshire 18-14 overall and 8-6 on target. Junior G Maggie Weldon stopped six shots for Southern New Hampshire.
