BALTIMORE, Md. – The No. 16 University of Scranton women's soccer team (0-1-1) battled hard for all 90 minutes, but a pair of second half goals proved costly as the Royals dropped a 3-1 decision to defending national champion and No. 1 Johns Hopkins (2-0) on Sunday afternoon at Homewood Field in Baltimore.
This marked the first ever meeting between the two programs.
The Blue Jays put together some early chances in the first 10 minutes of the match, but it was the Royals who struck first as senior Mary Haggerty (Garden City, N.Y./Garden City) stole the ball near midfield and played a through ball to classmate Niamh Healy (Orangeburg, N.Y./Tappan Zee) who sidestepped the charging keeper and slid a shot into the open net for a 1-0 lead in the 15th minute. Healy nearly struck again in the 21st minute when her shot was denied by Eva Breiland and sophomore Lindsay Sundheimer (Highland Mills, N.Y./Monroe Woodbury) sent a shot just high seconds later. From there, Johns Hopkins battled back to tie the game in the 30th minute on a goal from Katie Sullivan and Royals' junior goalie Nicole Olson (Stoughton, Mass./Ursuline Academy) then made three saves in the final 15 minutes of the half to keep things tied 1-1 at halftime.
In the early stages of the second half, the Blue Jays continued to mount the pressure offensively but Olson remained strong in net and made saves in the 52nd and 60th minutes as the game remained deadlocked at one for the time being. Johns Hopkins was able to take the lead in the 66th minute when Lilah Isenberg delivered a ball into the box and Maria Romo-Nichols slid a shot home for a 2-1 advantage. Senior Alaina McLaughlin (West Chester, Pa./Bishop Shanahan) had an opportunity in the 73rd minute when her shot was turned away by Breiland and the hosts then extended the lead to 3-1 with a penalty kick goal by Romo-Nichols in the 80th minute.
Scranton tallied six shots in the game, led by three from Healy.
Olson recorded a career-high 10 saves on the afternoon, surpassing her previous career-best of nine that had been set on Sept. 28, 2022 versus Misericordia.
The Royals will continue their season-opening road trip on Wednesday at Marywood with start time set for 7 p.m.
--ROYALS--
