By Liam O’Murchu (@Liam_0__)
In a season wrought with frustration, the troubles continued for women’s soccer on Thursday afternoon in a 3-2 loss to Davidson, their seventh straight loss.
On an afternoon where the Revs (3-11-3, 0-8-1 A10) were celebrating their Senior Day they suffered their most heartbreaking loss of a season that has been filled with them thanks to a long-distance free kick in the final moments.
“There’s a lot of things that can go a lot of different ways in that game if you look back on it and play the what if game,” GW assistant coach Bill Reno said. “But the big thing for me is, the seniors said it themselves at the end of the game. They were really proud of how the underclassmen played for them.”
GW translated the energy from the Senior Day celebration into an early chance after sophomore midfielder Aoi Kataoka laid the ball off to redshirt junior midfielder Caitlin Cunningham, who was one of the players honored and had plenty of friends and family in attendance. Cunningham fired the shot over the bar but it was an early warning shot for a Revolutionaries team looking for their first win since September 3.
Meanwhile it was Davidson who had the better of the play in the first half, controlling the tempo and keeping GW under pressure for much of the half even if they struggled to get any golden opportunities.
In the 39th minute, senior winger Lauren Prentice (also honored pregame) found herself through on goal and put a cheeky chip over the head of the Wildcats onrushing junior goalkeeper Emily Smith. It looked destined for goal but Smith somehow pawed it out for a corner kick as she was rushing back to her goal.
Kataoka would take the corner kick and find sophomore midfielder Isabel Kelly leaping at the back post. Kelly got a head on it and put it into the top corner, giving GW their first lead since the 86th minute of their September 10 match against American. That’s 853 minutes or just under 9.5 matches without holding a lead. It’s been that sort of season for the Revs.
But the lead would not last. A minute into the second half, Davidson freshman defender Brooke Roumy got to the end line and played a cross in which looked like a routine cross collection for GW junior goalkeeper Ainsley Lumpe. But Lumpe dropped the cross right into the path of sophomore midfielder Savannah Pruitt, who put it off her knee and in.
After the early second half goal, the Wildcats kept their foot on the gas pedal, putting the Revs under the kosh and seldom allowing them out of their own half. Particularly involved were Pruitt and sophomore forward Kialie Hudson, highlighted by a golden chance that was waved off for offside in the 65th minute.
In the 71st minute, senior midfielder Brooke Ditcham stood over a free kick and lofted it into the box. After a few seconds of chaos with the ball bouncing around the box in front of Lumpe, freshman defender Annaliese Mann poked it in and gave the Cats a lead.
Immediately following the goal, GW switched into a 3-5-2 which soon morphed into a 3-4-3. Key in the comeback effort was Kataoka who was seemingly teleporting across the field, breaking up a pass on the defensive end and getting involved offensively moments later. As much as the team has struggled this year, it hasn’t been because of Kataoka’s lack of effort. Combine that with her technical ability and you can see why she was named to the A10 All-Rookie Team last season. So much of what she does can’t be quantified by statistics but she has etched her name in the GW women’s soccer record books with eight assists this year despite missing four games. That mark ties her for the second most in a single season in program history.
“Even though she’s a technical player, physically she’s gonna get involved as well.” GW assistant coach Bill Reno said. “It’s a super contagious energy when you play with someone like that, it makes it a lot of fun.”
With just over three minutes remaining, senior wingback Margaret Rabbit (also honored pregame) played a cross into the box for Kataoka, who collided with a Davidson defender and drew a penalty. With the crowd on the edge of their seats, Kelly stepped up and put the ball to the goalkeeper’s bottom right to level the game.
The goal woke GW up and they suddenly had an energy they had been missing for much of the afternoon. The physicality level escalated even further as both teams searched for their first conference win in their penultimate match of the year.
With 25 seconds left, Davidson drew a free kick roughly 30 yards from goal. As the Wildcats rushed to set up the free kick, their bench clamored for the referee to stop the clock. Despite no signal from the referee to stop it, the scoreboard operator stopped the clock at 13 seconds. After a few moments, the referees noticed thanks to some help from the GW bench. At that point, the referee stopped the timer on his watch and had the clock reset to 11 seconds, and then to six. Chaos doesn’t even begin to describe it, but this chaos typically wouldn’t matter considering how far away the free kick was.
Naturally, senior midfielder Riley Patton stepped up and lofted the ball over the head of a flailing Lumpe to deliver her team their first win in 39 days. It was truly a remarkable strike and Davidson celebrated in appropriate fashion. Despite the Wildcats lack of success this year, I can ensure the bus ride back to North Carolina will be one they will never forget.
For GW, that final sequence was a good representation of their season. While they could have avoided it by not fouling or not conceding earlier in the game (or teaching the clock operator the rules of college soccer!), sometimes it just comes down to luck. And the luck just has not been there this season for a young Revs team that certainly could have used some.
The Revolutionaries finish up their season with the most logistically difficult road trip in the conference (if this surprises you, you haven’t been paying attention to GW soccer this year). That trip is to Olean, New York to take on St. Bonaventure at 1:30 PM on Sunday on ESPN+. The team is looking to avoid their first winless conference season in program history.
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