HARRISONBURG, Va. – The Old Dominion women’s soccer team headed to James Madison on Sunday night and dropped a tough 3-2 decision at Sentara Park in a key Sun Belt Conference matchup.
"Tonight, we were just not good enough. Simple as that. We started the game really sluggish and JMU did the opposite, they were bright and sharp and deserved their goals,” said ODU Head Coach Angie Hind.
JMU (5-3-2, 3-0-0) jumped out on the Monarchs scoring two goals in a six-minute span early in the first half. Jordan Yang found Jamie Swartz for the first tally at the 15:32 mark and then an own goal at the 21:55 mark for a quick 2-0 JMU lead.
The Dukes pushed it to 3-0 as Amanda Attanasi connected with Ginny Lackey for a goal at 30:17 of the opening half.
ODU (6-4-1, 1-1-1) started chipping away at the deficit as Andrea Balcazar Algarin served one into the box and Ashlynn Kulha came from the left side and headed it into the right corner of the net at 31:30 for a 3-1 deficit.
The Monarchs opened the second half on attack mode and found a second goal off the head of Rhea Kijowski. Katie McCormick led Kijowski just enough on a feed where she headed it over the outstretched arms of the JMU goalie to trim the deficit to 3-2.
ODU had opportunities in the second half, but couldn’t connect with an equalizer.
“The positive if there is one tonight was our response and the character we showed to fight and scrap to bring it back to 3-2. But the best team won tonight. We have to take our medicine tonight, and hope that moving forward it makes us stronger," Hind added.
On the night, JMU held a 16-10 advantage in shots while each team had three corner kick chances.
The Monarchs are on the road again on Friday, October 4 facing South Alabama.