Vanderbilt Hands Women's Soccer First Loss of the Season

Friday, September 4

Nashville, Tenn.

8:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt Hands Women's Soccer First Loss of the Season

9/4/2015 10:07:00 PM | Women's Soccer

By: Dartmouth

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – After 40 scoreless minutes and a handful of close calls, Vanderbilt's Lydia Simmons scored the eventual game-winner to lead the Commodores to a 1-0 shutout of the Dartmouth women's soccer team at the VU Soccer/Lacrosse Complex on Friday evening.

The Big Green dipped to 1-1 on the year, following a 2-0 victory over Marist on Sunday, while Vanderbilt improved to 2-3.

“I thought both teams worked very hard through the 90-minute fast-paced game and I like how our team battled and worked especially hard in the second half to try and get that goal,” head coach Ron Rainey said. “The entire group played well. For our second game of the year, we did well following the game plan and doing what we needed to do to defend and attack.

“What we have to do is work to get even cleaner and perfect it just a little bit, as their team got some pressure on us,” Rainey continued. “That will create more scoring chances and help us find the net. We need to fight for each other and the group did exactly that tonight.”

Although it was not evident on the scoreboard, the first half of the game was a physical battle between the teams. Within the first 15 minutes of action, senior Corey Delaney had taken two corner kicks, classmate Lucielle Kozlov had her shot saved by Christiana Ogunsami and Vanderbilt's Simone Charley had hit the crossbar.

The rest of the opening period was much the same, with plenty of near misses and another crossbar hit by Charley, and it looked as if the Big Green and the Commodores would continue this dance well into the second half, but that soon changed. At 40:30, Simmons scored her first goal of the season off a shot just outside the center of the box, sending the ball into the top left corner.

The second half was similar to the first in that both teams played aggressively, trying to get a goal of their own while simultaneously attempting to keep the opposing team at bay. Senior Jackie Friedman had back-to-back chances at a goal, having her first shot saved by Ogunsami before having her corner kicked stopped by the goalie seconds later. The Big Green had a few more attempts, but were not able to get that game-tying goal that they needed.

Vanderbilt outshot Dartmouth, 17-8, and junior Holly Patterson led the team with three shots. The Big Green had nine corner kicks compared to the Commodores' seven and, in net, junior Casey Cousineau and Ogunsami each ended the night with three saves.

Dartmouth will take Saturday off and will return to the VU Soccer/Lacrosse Complex the following day to take on Memphis at 8 p.m.