Sept. 20, 2005
Contact: Brian McCann
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland State women's soccer team showed that it is on the cusp of earning its first win. Despite losing to Niagara, 3-1, on Tuesday night at Krenzler Field, the Vikings put forth their best display of 2005.
"This is the best effort so far this year," head coach Derrek Falor said. "You can see the development of our offensive attack. It has been much improved from even the beginning of the season."
The Vikings fell to an early 2-0 deficit on back-to-back goals from Stephanie Gartley in the first 3:10 of play. Gartley would later go on to complete the hat-trick in the second half. Amber Rasmussen, who led the team in points in 2004, scored her first point of the year in the 12th minute. Freshman Ashley Walchack setup Rasmussen, who fired a shot past the Purple Eagles' goalkeeper from the right-side corner of the box.
"It was good to finally see Amber get on the scoreboard," Falor said. "She has accepted a new role this year which has helped us become a better team."
The Rasmussen goal would be the only marker for the Vikings, who let up one second half goal on a breakaway from Gartley in the 52nd minute. After some mistakes in the opening moments of each half, the Vikings controlled play for the majority of the game.
"We dug a hole at the beginning of the match and then we went out and played excellent soccer," Falor said. "Unfortunately that has been our Achilles' heel this year and something we must improve on."
Freshman Erin Withrow made a season-high 11 saves in the first half of action. Allie Zajaros played between the pipes in the second half and added three saves. For Zajaros it was the first time she has been in goal since Oct. 29, 2004.
Falor pointed out the impressive play of redshirt freshman Abbie Kakias.
"We ask an awful lot of Abbie and even played her at three different positions tonight," Falor said. "Even though she got banged up midway through the match, she came back strong and created some opportunities for us. That was something we missed with her out last year."
The Vikings will hit the road on Friday, Sept. 23 for the second of three matches this week when they travel to Duquesne. Kick off is at 7:00 p.m.
