Box Score

Sophomore Erin Haggerty led a two-goal second-half comeback to give the New York University women's soccer team a 2-2 draw at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, PA, on Sunday, September 19.

With the Violets (2-5-1) trailing the Garnet (2-3-1) 2-0 and just over 20 minutes to play, Haggerty sparked a furious rally with the help of senior Emily Jenkinson.  Off a throw-in, Jenkinson lifted a pass to Haggerty in the box, and Haggerty put it home to cut NYU's deficit in half.

With just four minutes left in regulation, Haggerty completed the comeback, winning a loose ball in the box and chipping it over the keeper's head.

“I'm proud of our effort today,” said head coach Werner T. Dasbach.  “We showed a lot of passion and battled hard.  I thought we could have won, but it was a great comeback.”

Jenkinson came within inches of giving NYU a win in the first overtime period. She sent a shot headed to the top left corner, but Swarthmore keeper Marie Mutryn got just enough of it to deflect it off the crossbar and post and then out of bounds.

“I thought the game was over when she hit it,” commented Dasbach.  “The keeper just got a couple of fingertips on it.”

After that chance the Violets continued pressing, recording all four shots of the first overtime period while holding Swarthmore without one.  Senior Alex Walters made a nice sliding play to breakup the Garnet's best chance of the period, and then made two of her six saves in the second extra session to maintain the tie.

NYU controlled the pace of play in the first half and outshot Swarthmore 13-5.  Freshman Natalie Beach narrowly missed giving the Violets a 1-0 lead in the 22nd minute, sending a header from a Jenkinson cross just inches over the crossbar.

Less than a minute later sophomore Serra Tumay also came close to finding the back of the net, ripping a shot from the left side to the far right post that was just saved by a diving Mutryn.

But NYU couldn't break through and the Garnet built its second-half lead with the aid of a strange bounce and a deflection.  First Alexa Ross corralled the ball off a high bounce over the Violet defense and fed it to a wide-open Megan Colombo, who finished to break the deadlock in the 55th minute.

Eight minutes later Kirsten Peterson expanded Swarthmore's lead to 2-0, putting the ball in after a deflection off an NYU tackle.

But the Violets stormed back to salvage a draw.  For the game NYU outshot Swarthmore 25-12, with 14 of those shots going on goal.

The Violets return to action with a matinee tilt against Wilkes University on Friday, Sept. 24 at Gaelic Park in the Bronx.  Game time is scheduled for noon.