Coming off a disappointing meltdown in the second half of their 3-2 loss to Miami(Ohio) a day before, Eagles head coach Steve Jennings poised his team for victory in this matchup, “I was disappointed the way the game unraveled yesterday. We just tried to get them focused in on the things that were going to be the key to getting the win. So trying to do all the basic things correctly.”
AU dominated the first half, as they produced 12 shots on the Lions goal in comparison to Columbia’s three, with both teams having three penalty corners. The Eagles scored two goals in the first half in a three minute time frame.
At 7:55 AU’s standout senior midfielder Shelly Montgomery took a penalty corner. The Eagles would register two unsuccessful shots before the ball eventually found it’s way to Treharne who put the ball past Columbia keeper Kimberly Pianucci for the first score of the game.
The Eagles would continue their early momentum two minutes later with a vicious rising slap-shot from Treharne with a timely assist from senior forward Jaclyn Anspach to put the Eagles up two.
Columbia would later score off a penalty corner late in the first half, cutting into the Eagles lead.
Nevertheless, the Eagles stayed dominant in the second half despite a handful of missed scoring opportunities, while adding another whopping 12 shots on the Lions goal.
“If you really want to be a championship team, one that wins the league, then you want to be a team that’s always hungry for more and I think that they have done a very good job of that,” Jennings said.
In spite of several missed goals in the second half, AU filled its appetite with two more points to pull away from Columbia. AU’s third goal came from a 2-on-1 play 43:22 minutes into the game with sophomore midfielder Isabel Terwindt breaking away from the Lion defense and passing the ball off to a wide open r Katie Lonsky for the easy chip-in. It was the first goal of the season for the sophomore midfielder.
In the final minutes the Eagles scoring machine continued when junior midfielder Grace Wilson, topped off the victory with a goal following a penalty corner with assists by junior midfielders Carly Atchison and freshman midfielder Victoria De Kepper.
“I think we’ve done a really good job overall this season,” Jennings said about his teams performance so far this season. “We’re still learning lessons all the time and we’re going to need to step up our game for the second half of the season, especially when we start league play. So the key part is we’re in a good place but it’s all about these opponents as we go along, so we’re gonna have to be better next weekend than we were this weekend.”
AU’s next game will be its first Patriot League matchup, versus Holy Cross on Sept. 21st at Reeves Field.
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