Saints Upend 8th Ranked Ithaca

by: 

Tara Freeman

Abby van Geldern had 15 saves in Saturday's upset of 8th-ranked Ithaca

Meg Howard and Devon Shatkin scored first half goals and goaltender Abby van Geldern made 15 saves to lead St. Lawrence University's women's soccer team to a 2-1 win over nationally 8^th-ranked Ithaca College at Ithaca on Saturday.

The Saints snapped a three-game Ithaca win streak with the victory and improve to 7-5-1 on the season. Ithaca is now 10-3.

"We came out very hard in the first half and did a great job at possessing the ball," said Saint coach Franco Bari. "We created some opportunities and today we were able to capitalize on them, which is something we have been working very hard on."

Howard scored the game's first goal, her fourth of the year, as a corner kick along the goal line deflected off an Ithaca player in front of the goal and into the net at the 5:02 mark.

Shatkin scored her first of the year at 31:04 as Katharine Polido sent a cross from the left corner and Shatkin headed the ball into the net from about four yards out.

Ithaca outshot the Saints 29-12 and had a 13-3 edge in corner kicks, but vanGeldern turned in an outstanding game to help the Saints to the win. She had nine of her 15 saves in the first half and received some outstanding defensive help from her teammates in the second half.

"Ithaca came at us with a lot of force and energy in the second half, but we defended very well," said Bari. "The forwards, midfielders and backs all did a great job in front of Abby, who made some big saves for us throughout the day."

Ithaca scored its only goal of the game when Lauren Koppel headed the ball at the near post on a cross at the 64:13 mark.

The Saints will return to action against Potsdam State at Sandy MacAllaster Field on Wednesday at 4 p.m.