Loyola Greyhound

Issue date: 10/24/06 Section: Sports

Heather Cooke takes the ball downfield for the Hounds. The defense posted two shutouts including a rout of Iona on Senior Day.

The Loyola Women's soccer team won their 46th conference game in a row and their eighth straight game overall on Sunday afternoon after beating Iona 4-0 at Diane Geppi-Aikens Field. The victory brings their record to 9-5-2 and 7-0-0 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Four different players scored for the Hounds and the defense looked strong and aggressive continuing their season long dominance.

"We're playing really well, we're very excited with the MAAC tournament coming up," said senior Kaitlin Klar. "We need to keep the intensity up. It's what fuels our fire."

It did not take long for the Hounds to get started as senior Katelyn Woods scored off a Courtney Arikian pass to put the Greyhounds on the board to start the game. The Hounds continued to create chances on offense, but were unable to capitalize on their 10 first half shots.

The Loyola offense had the ball for a good part of the first half giving the defense a slight break and allowing sophomore goalie Amanda Piccirilli to have an easy first half.

The Hounds really started to spread the ball around in the second half as seven players attempted shots with five of those players managing shots on goal.

However, none of the shots seemed to fall during the first few minutes of the second half. But with less then 15 minutes to play, the Hounds' offense came together starting with a goal from freshman Heather Cooke off a pass from fellow freshman Rachel Shuck. Shuck was not done, as she punched in a close range shot off a pass from sophomore Theresa Ferraina to give the hounds a 3-0 lead with only 11 minutes left.

Iona managed just four shots, three of which were saved by Piccirilli. The Gales did not manage a goal as the aggressive Loyola defense led by senior Caitlin McCusker, stifled every Gael opportunity.

With under a minute left in the game the Hounds pushed the ball up the field. Senior Kaitlin Klar took the ball and passed ahead to fellow senior and team anchor Carolyn Kennington. Kennington controlled the ball inside the box and rocketed a shot with under 5 seconds remaining to finish off the Gaels, 4-0.

Loyola looked just as good on Friday afternoon as the managed to shut out inner conference foe Fairfield 2-0. Once again the defense came to play, notching their sixth shutout of the season.

Continued...

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