Women's Soccer Suffers Hard Fought Loss on Opening Day

WESTON, Mass. - The Regis (Mass.) women's soccer team suffered a loss in Saturday afternoon's season opener, falling to the University of Maine at Farmington Beavers by a score of 2-1 at Regis Stadium.

With the win, the Beavers improve to 1-1-0 on the season, while the Pride drops to 0-1-0 with the defeat.

Farmington freshman midfielder Risa Marble (Strong, Maine) opened the scoring on the afternoon, as she put away her first collegiate goal in the 10th minute. After a scramble in front of the Regis net, a Pride defender attempted to clear the ball off the goalline, but the ball ricocheted off Marble's body and into the goal to give the Beavers a 1-0 advantage.

The score remained 1-0 until the half, and once the second half began, play began to swing in the home side's favor. The Pride came out of the break firing on all cylinders, and finally got the equalizer in the 60th minute. After Beaver goalkeeper Kiana Thompson (Industry, Maine) robbed Tais Salles (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) off a centering cross, Pride rookie Emma Mendes (Pawtucket, R.I.) hopped on the rebound and fired it into the open cage to even the score at 1-1.

The crowd was still buzzing 37 seconds later, but Farmington's McKenna Brodeur (Oakland, Maine) quickly silenced the Pride Faithful. A perfect ball over the top from senior Kaiti Kinney (Surry, Maine) found the foot of Brodeur, who slid a perfect shot past a diving Kyrsten Drake (Loganville, Ga.) to put the Beavers back in the lead at 2-1.

The Pride almost got the tally back just as quickly as the Beavers had previously. Thirty-four seconds after Brodeur's goal, Regis freshman Emily Lange (Ashland, Mass.) took a shot from the top of the box that clanked off the crossbar and over the top of the net to keep the score at 2-1.

The Pride would continue to mount heavy pressure, but could not find an equalizer. The game ended with the Pride out-shooting the Beavers 25-10 overall, and 19-7 in the second half alone. Thompson made 15 saves in net for Farmington to pick up her first win of the season. Drake picked up the loss for the Pride despite making four saves.

Regis will next take the pitch on the road at Mount Ida on Wednesday night for its first ever Great Northeast Athletic Conference game. The Beavers will be back in action the same day with a road tilt at Southern Maine.

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