Women’s soccer splits weekend games at home

The women’s soccer team had a big weekend at Cobb Stadium. The ‘Canes had a tough game against No. 12 West Virginia, losing 3-1 on Friday night, but bounced back nicely to defeat Columbia 2-0 on Sunday afternoon.
In Friday night’s match-up, the West Virginia Mountaineers scored on three of 26 shots with All-American Chrissie Abbot leading the way with two goals against the ‘Canes. The visitors put the game away at the 60-minute mark on an unassisted goal by Lisa Stoia, who also had two assists to hold off the Hurricanes.
For UM, junior Andrea Radice scored her first goal of the year on a pass from freshman Sheuneen Ta. The Hurricanes got off 12 shots total, eight of which were on goal.
Freshman goalie Alex Alford made nine saves in 90 minutes of action but leading scorer sophomore Lindsey Yach was kept quiet all night.
Miami fell to 3-3-0 on the year with the loss to their cross-divisional foe in the Big East. The win was West Virgnia’s fourth in a row as they improved to 4-1-0. The ‘Canes also fell to 1-3 all-time against the Mountaineers.
It was a different story on Sunday afternoon for Miami as they got solid play all around and kept Columbia out of the offensive zone for a good portion of the game.
UM dominated the shots on goal, 25-5, with 15 of them coming in the first half, and held the edge on corner-kicks 7-3.
“It was very big for us to get back on the winning track after Friday’s loss,” Head Coach Tricia Taliaferro said.
The win was the third shutout of the season for Miami and also their first win of the year at Cobb Stadium.
“It was good day for us, winning our first home game of the year,” Taliaferro said. “Any day is good when we put up two and we keep them off the scoreboard.”
Juniors Britney Butcher and Anik Huffman assisted Yach’s goal. Huffman also added her first goal of the season in the 79th minute as Butcher and Ta got the assists for the Hurricanes. Yach led the ‘Canes with five shots.
It was also a historic day for the ‘Canes. With Butcher recording two assists today, it put her atop Miami’s all-time career points list with 63.
Alford had a relatively easy day in net as Columbia only registered three shots on goal in 90 minutes. Everything was down at Columbia goalkeeper Erissa Aronson’s net as she made 10 saves out of the 12 shots she faced. The Hurricanes’ game plan worked to perfection against the Lions.
“One thing we did well today was we kept Columbia to the outside,” Taliaferro said.
Miami improved to 4-3-0 on the year and the Lions of Columbia fell to 2-3-0 after the loss.
Miami will be back in action Friday as they will participate in the FSU Tournament in Tallahassee.