It must have been the luck of the Irish this past week for the Owls. The women’s soccer team had an unbelievable comeback when they went up against Middlebury College on Monday night.
At the half the lady Owls were down 0-3. With an inspirational talk from their coach Denise Lyons, also known as “Irish”, the Owls came back with a new mindset.
“We scored off of a header from a corner from one of our defenders, and she’s never scored a goal before so it was really exciting,” senior captain Shannon Summers said.
KSC sophomore Tori Laires scored her first collegiate goal coming out of the half.
“It felt great to get that goal. At halftime we didn’t think we would have a comeback because this team is nationally ranked, but we had a motivational halftime talk with our coach, picking our heads up and when I scored that goal for our team it made everyone fired up and it set the tone for the rest of the game,” Laires said.
Just like that the Owls were on the board. With just scoring one goal the Owls were back and ready to play.
“So we were down 3-1 but there was a new energy,” Summers said.
Summers scored the next goal with just seven minutes left in the game. Thirty-three seconds later there was another goal from Sierra Trzepacz.
“We always know going into a Middlebury game that it’s going to be tough, they’re a good team and they’re nationally ranked,” Summers said.
While on the field, Laires and another teammate collided. “Natalie Roca and I were double-teaming one of the strongest players who was on a breakaway and the Middlebury player shoved Natalie into me causing Natalie to elbow me in the face,” Laires said.
Laires had broken her nose and was out for the rest of the game.
File Photo / Tim Smith
With five minutes left in the game, the Owls knew they had to hold the tie for them to go into overtime. “We made it to overtime and then double overtime,” Summers said.
After double overtime the game was over leaving the score 3-3. “We were so happy with what we had accomplished that game, it felt like we won even though we tied,” Summers said.
“We should never forget this game, and remember to never give up,” Assistant Coach Sarah Testo said.
Wednesday was another successful night for the women’s soccer team.. They were away and played at Worcester State University.
Within the first three minutes of the game Summers scored the first goal.
“Worcester came back and scored off of a free kick right outside the box in the first half,” Summers said.
The Owls had multiple opportunities in the second half. “We just couldn’t get the shots off,” Summers said.
They went into over time and within two minutes Morgan Kathan scored and ended the game with an overall score of 2-1.
Although Laires had a broken nose from the previous game, she came prepared. She had a facemask to protect her nose and was able to play the entire game.
Laires will be getting surgery this week and will be back on the field by Wednesday the fourteenth.
Shelby can be contacted at siava@kscequinox.com
