PRESQUE ISLE, ME
It was a gloomy and sometimes soggy Saturday afternoon, which threw a damper into the UMPI Women's home opening contest. The Mariners of Maine Maritime Academy also threw a damper in UMPI's plans as well, as they came up for the early season non-conference matchup. The two teams will play again later on in the year which will be a conference game.
5-0 Mariners:
The Owls played solid defense early, keeping the Mariners at bay for until the 30th minute of the game, when reigning co-player of the week Hadley Stoddard opened up the scoring with a point-blank near-post shot to make it 1-0. MMA got back on the board 10 minutes later when Megan Dorr scored unassisted to give the Mariners a comfortable halftime lead at 2-0.
In the second half the Mariners scored early to make it 3-0, and then again in the 70th minute to put the final nail in the coffin. They'd add one more off a free kick with less than 40 seconds to go to get to their final score of five, while playing excellent in the midfield, preventing any kind of UMPI attack for almost the whole afternoon.
Top Performers:
Despite the final score, UMPI's defense did play well most of the game, clearing many close calls when Keeper Natalie Miranda came off her line. Miranda was outstanding, making 14 saves in her 87 minutes in net, some of them acrobatic on shots that seemed destined to find the back of the net.
Next Up:
The Owls will get right back after it tomorrow, when they play hosts to Fisher College for another noon start time.
