AU’s women’s soccer fell to Robert Morris University 1-0 Sunday, to carry on their trend of being unable to win the close games.
Last year was a series of missed opportunities, as the Eagles were in close games late but were unable to shut the door. This year has yielded much of the same, as they outshot Robert Morris but were unable to get many balls on net. AU’s best opportunity to score came midway through the first half, when they had a series of shots on net and penalty corners.
While AU allowed several of their opportunities to slip away, Robert Morris only needed one to seal the game. Towards the end of the second half, a foul was called on AU and Robert Morris capitalized on a free kick. From 40 yards out, RMU’s Ayana Davis knocked the ball past Eagles keeper Arianna Efstathiou for the 1-0 lead.
It looked as if the failure to capitalize on their opportunities rattled the Eagles, as they had four fouls, gave up their only two penalty corners of the game and allowed five scoring chances on five shots. While they didn’t completely collapse as a team, their inability to score has been their biggest problem during their four-game slide.
AU has only one goal and has given up seven since their 1-0 win over Radford on Sept. 13. The lack of scoring is reminiscent of last season, when the Eagles were shut out nine times over the season, seven times in a row. While it looked as if the team may have put their inability to win close matches behind them earlier in the year, they have lost all of their games by two goals or less.
Head Coach David Bucciero said that winning close games was important to the team’s success after their victory over Bryant over a month ago. It looked as if the team had accomplished that goal by jumping out to a 4-2 start, but have recently gone cold.
The good news for AU is that four of their next five games are at home, where they are 3-2 on the year. With a little over a month left in the season the team will have to have a strong Patriot League season to qualify for the tournament, as they currently sit second to last in the league overall. Their biggest test will come on Oct. 31, the last day of the season, when the 9-2-1 Navy visit Washington, D.C.
AU’s next game is Oct. 3 against Bucknell, which opens their Patriot League schedule. The Bison have had the same type of season as AU posting a 5-5-1 record.
You can reach this staff writer at atomlinson@theeagleonline.com.
