Women's Soccer Blanks Southern Vermont on Senior Day

Chris Kendrick (@CKendrick86)

CHICOPEE, Mass. – The Elms College women's soccer team shutout visiting Southern Vermont College, 3-0, in a New England Collegiate Conference matchup at Leary Field Saturday afternoon. With the win, Elms pushes their unbeaten streak to six straight games.

Prior to the match, Elms recognized their two departing seniors, midfielder Delina DeVillier (Springfield, Mass.) and forward Gina DiGiovanni (Springfield, Mass.), for their dedication and commitment to the women's soccer program.

The Blazers had an opportunity to break the scoreless game in the 11^th minute as freshman midfielder Jackie Soucia (Belchertown, Mass.) ripped a shot of the crossbar.

In the 38^th minute, the Blazers broke the scoreless deadlock as sophomore defender Kylen O'Hearn (Somers, Conn.) fired a shot on goal, which was saved by Mountaineers freshman goalkeeper Melissa Mascari (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.), but the loose ball trickled to the foot of freshman midfielder Angelina Estrada (Springfield, Mass.), who banged the ball into the back of the net, giving the Elms the 1-0 advantage.

The Blazers had a few chances to add to their total in the opening minutes, including a pellet from DiGiovanni that rang off the crossbar, but couldn't break through. With 16:27 to play, sophomore forward Rachel Mick (Granby, Conn.) played a ball up the far right side to O'Hearn, who ripped a shot to the far side of the goal from 12 yards out to extend the Elms lead to 2-0. The Blazers added their final tally with less than 10 seconds remaining as DeVillier tapped in a beautiful cross from freshman midfielder Erica Van Ness (Agawam, Mass.), to send Elms to a 3-0 victory.

The Blazers dominated the shot column with a season high 36 shots to two shots from Southern Vermont. Elms junior goalkeeper Alexa Rinaudo (Bellmore, N.Y.) registered her seventh clean sheet of the season with one save, while Mascari denied a game-high 11 shots in the loss. The Blazers move to 7-0 all-time against the Mountaineers.

"I thought it was a complete performance all around," said Elms Assistant Coach Mike Wysocki. "Offensively and defensively, we attacked in numbers. We defended as a unit today. It's easy to sit back and watch when the offense is a fluid, and like clockwork, as they were today. We were calm and collected, and always in control. We need to build off of our momentum to finish out the season. We've continued to shut out teams, and our defense has been on point, and our offense is doing their job to put goals away. It was great to be able to send our seniors out with a win today."

The Blazers improved to 7-8-1 on the season, and 6-1 in NECC play, while Southern Vermont dropped to 6-9, and 4-3 in the NECC. Elms returns to action in an NECC road match at Daniel Webster Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. Southern Vermont hosts Bay Path in a NECC contest Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.

ELMS SOCCER