HOBOKEN, N.J. – Whitman College's early-season woes in one-goal games re-surfaced Sunday as the Missionaries suffered a 1-0 overtime loss to Vassar College in non-conference women's soccer action at the Stevens (Institute of Technology) Engineering Tournament on the DeBaun Athletic Complex turf.
The game-winner came in the extra period's second minute when a corner kick from the Brewers' Amanda McFarland was inadvertently deflected into the goal behind Whitman goalkeeper
Haley Case who had stopped each of the five shots on goal she'd faced during regulation time.
The one-goal loss was the third of the season for Whitman (0-4) while Vassar (3-2) inches above the .500 mark after its third overtime game of the Brewers' past four outings.
The Missionaries weren't without their chances, especially early on when they peppered the Vassar goal with the game's first four shots. The initial three shots required Vassar keeper Emma Nichols to come up with stops to prevent Whitman from lighting up the scoreboard.
The Brewers reeled off the next three shots of the game with the second of those coming closest to breaking the scoreless deadlock, clanging off the crossbar on a corner kick chance in the 14th minute.
Whitman registered four more shots, three necessitating Nichols' services, between the 16th and 25th minute. And Case was called into action in the 26th with her first save of the game to continue each teams' scoring droughts.
After 15 shots in the opening 45 minutes the two teams combined for 10 more in the second half, six of which made it on frame with Case stepping up with four saves. Two of those stops came in the final seven minutes including a leaping stab of a chip shot after she had already deflected a corner cross, coming well off her line to snare the attempt before it could clear her outstretched gloves.
Eight different Whitman players combined to paste the Vassar goal frame during regulation time but none could sneak past Nichols who completed the shutout with eight saves.
The Missionaries enter Northwest Conference play in their next outing, a Wednesday trip to Spokane, Washington, to take on host Whitworth University.
