It has been an up-and-down season for the Colby women’s soccer team. In the first seven games, the team managed to earn points after each of its two defeats.  The last two weeks have served as a continuation of this pattern.

Colby started off the two-week series at home against the University of Maine at Farmington (UMF). Just 20 minutes into the first half, Marissa Simmons ’12 opened the scoring off an assist from Kat McCarrick ’13 following a Colby corner kick.  Just 18 minutes later, Simmons scored her second goal of the match to send Colby into halftime up 2-0.  25 minutes after her second goal, Simmons continued her hot streak by assisting on a Kate Pistel ’13 goal.  Emily Anderson ’14 scored the first goal of her collegiate career to finish off the victory at the 72nd minute.

Following standout sophomore Jayde Bennett’s four shutouts in the first seven games, Loni Pisani ’11 returned from an injury leave to record Colby’s fifth shutout of the year. The Mules dominated the match by unleashing 19 shots on net while only conceding five.

However, three days later, Colby was not able to build on this victory against Tufts.  While Colby was able to earn seven corner kicks, they were unable to muster up more than five shots.  A penalty kick at the 23rd minute was just out of Bennett’s reach. The Mules’ misfortunes continued when a shot deflected off a Colby player into the net at the 57th minute to seal Tufts’ victory.

Four days later, Colby rebounded once more to put the season back on track.  Against Southern Maine (USM), Colby managed a 1-0 victory. Sam Merriweather ’12  scored her first goal of the year to give Colby the win. Bennett played superbly again as she recorded her fifth shutout of the year.  While Colby managed to outshoot USM 17-7, they had trouble finishing.  A few weeks ago, Coach Holsten mentioned the team’s need for improvement in this category; it seems the troubles continue to linger. 

Against New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) leaders Amherst, Colby’s offense continued to struggle. A Mari Crommett ’11 shot sailed over the net just nine minutes into the game.  None of Colby’s eight other shots found the back of the net. Co-captain Su-Lin Guercio ’11 did, however, score on a penalty kick at the 62nd minute to counter Amherst’s Kathryn Nathan’s penalty at the 19th minute.  Unfortunately, six minutes later, Nathan scored on another penalty to give Amherst the win.  The good news is that Colby competed with the NESCAC leaders for 90 minutes.  The bad news, is that Bennett left the game with an injury. 

According to this up-and-down pattern, Colby should be resilient and bounce back against Husson on October 19.  The Mules faithful can only hope that Colby will then break the pattern and build momentum against Connecticut College at home on October 29.