Box Score HIGHLIGHTS
Emmitsburg, Md. (August 19, 2016) -- Mount St. Mary's University women's soccer dropped a 3-1 decision to Loyola on Friday in the season opener at Waldron Family Stadium. Freshman Noelle DeFede tallied the Mount's lone goal for the first of her collegiate career, and fellow rookie Jaylyn Chandler picked up an assist for her first career point.
"As we start the season, there's a lot of excitement, a lot of things we want to accomplish. Unfortunately we gave up two goals off set pieces early on and it came back to bite us in the end ... Fortunately for our players we came back and turned it around, Noelle got her first college goal, but it was too little too late ... I'm proud of the resiliency, but dissapointed in the result," said Joe Nemzer, who made his head coaching debut in his first season at the helm of the program.
Loyola jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on Julianna Cabrera's goal just over five minutes into the contest. Cabrera corralled a deflection and narrowly beat goalie Maddy Bunnell as it trickled off the keeper's fingertips and found its way into the back of the net.
Just over five minutes later, Maddie Hart made it 2-0 Loyola on an unassisted tally. Hart collected a loose ball, cut to the middle of the box and fired a shot towards the far post to give the Greyhounds a two-goal advantage.
Early in the second half, Cabrera registered her second goal of the game, beating Bunnell with a low shot from around 20 yards out to give Loyola a 3-0 advantage.
The Mount responded in the 72nd minute on DeFede's first tally of her career. Off a corner kick, the ball found its way over to Chandler, who headed it across the box to DeFede. DeFede sent a one-time volley past keeper Sumer Rahe for the Mountaineers' first tally of the season, cutting the deficit to 3-1 with around 18 minutes remaining.
Despite a couple of promising late opportunities, Loyola was able to hold off the Mount to close out the 3-1 victory.
Bunnell made four saves in net for the Mount, while Rahe stopped a pair of shots to grab the win.
The Mount is back in action on Friday, August 26 for a home match against Howard at Waldron Family Stadium.
