The women's soccer team lost to local rival George Washington University 1-0 in a gut wrenching, double overtime game. The Eagles dominated the game, but it was the Colonials' heroics in the fourth minute of the second overtime that left the Eagles with its second defeat in a row.
The entire first half was primarily played on the Colonials' side of the field. Every time George Washington tried to cross the midfield stripe, Olivia Heditsian and the rest of AU's defense, were there to power the ball back to the racing forwards. Elbows flew and both teams became comfortable sprawling on the grass after numerous collisions.
"It was a tough fight for us," Olivia Heditsian said. "But we controlled the game."
The Eagles' offense was a barrage of clean, crisp ball movement and powerful shots rocketed toward the Colonials' goalkeeper, Amie Kern. In the first half alone, the Eagles had 10 shots on goal, including a blast from outside the box that hit the top goal post, narrowly missing the net by two inches. The Colonials only shot once. Even with the Eagles' offensive control, the score was knotted up at zero, allowing the Colonials to breath easy until the second half began.
Narrowly escaping AU's steady bombardment of shots on goal unscathed, the Colonials started the second half running on all cylinders. The Eagles outshot the Colonials 10-8, but the playing field leveled off as the Colonials began to attack the net more vigorously. Moans from Eagles' and Colonials' fans echoed across the field each time a forward narrowly missed the back of the net. As the end of the second half drew closer, the Eagles performed similarly to the way it did in the first half, but the ball was continuously denied as it sailed toward the net.
It was the stellar play of Kern that led George Washington to victory. Each time the Eagles attacked the net, she was there to stop the team. By the end of the game, Kern accumulated 12 saves. She had almost as many saves as her team had shots on goal.
Overtime was a period of desperation for the Eagles. Whoever scored first would win the game. Exhaustion began to take its toll on both teams, but the pace of the game never slackened. The Eagles pushed the ball forward, only to be stopped at the goal line. The Colonials mimicked this process until the 104th minute when Colonial Erika Wright followed up a shot by teammate Dara Rosen for the winning goal.
"It all came down to discipline and mental toughness, and we struggled with this today," Heditsian said.
The Eagles look to suspend its current slide when the team plays Long Island University on Friday at 2 p.m.
