Sept. 7, 2007

Box Score

The George Mason women's soccer team played its first home match of the 2007 season and they gave the 592 fans at George Mason Stadium plenty to cheer about as Mason improved to 2-1-0 on the year taking a 3-0 win over Stony Brook in the Mason Tournament. The Patriots were dominant on the attack, taking a 24-7 edge in shots over the Seawolves (2-1-0).

After a scoreless first half that saw Mason have a 14-3 edge in shots, the Patriots broke through in the 50th minute as Kelly Keelan scored her second goal of the season. She took a feed from L.J. Williams and put the ball in past a diving Marisa Viola. In the 53rd minute, Mason nearly made it 2-0 when Sarah Fack put the ball in after beating her defender one-on-one, but offsides was called on the play.

The Patriots did make it 2-0 in the 61st minute, this time with Fack supplying the assist as she hooked up with L.J. Williams, who like Keelan, scored her second goal of the year. In the 71st minute, Mason set a season-high for goals as Annie Lebherz, who missed the final 13 games of 2006 with a knee injury, found her way into the scoring column as she dribbled through the Stony Brook defense and scored unassisted.

With the comfortable lead, Mason was able to play a defensive game over the final 19 minutes to take the win. It wasn't without a cost, though, as senior Alison Feldman, one of the leaders of the Mason defense, was injured in the final 20 minutes. She isn't expected to play in Mason's next match. Senior goalie Kasey Davenport earned the win in net, her first shutout of the season. The Patriots will try to take home the tournament title on Sunday when they host George Washington at 2:30 p.m.

Earlier in the day, in the tournament's first game, Georgetown turned in an impressive performance with a 5-0 victory over George Washington. The Hoyas took a 1-0 lead into the half as Nicole Smith scored in the 30th minute off a rebound of an Ingrid Wells shot.

The second half saw a flurry of scoring. Wells scored on an assist from Sara Jordan in the 51st minute, then Jordan found Lindsay Appezatto in the 58th minute to make it 3-0. It became 4-0 in the 72nd minute when Stephanie Zare scored off assists from Karen Waskewich and Lauren Von Der Ahe and Von Der Ahe made it 5-0 in the 80th minute on an assist from Carlee Briglia.

The Hoyas had a 23-0 shot advantage in the game and took 14 corners. The Colonials tasted defeat for the first time on the year falling to 3-1-0. The Hoyas, meanwhile, improved to 3-1-0, and with a win in the tournament against Stony Brook on Sunday at Noon, will likely earn the tournament title. Should Mason and Georgetown tie with two wins each, the first tiebreaker since the teams didn't play each other will be goal differential, and the Hoyas' +5 heading into Sunday will be hard to top.