Soccer

MILWAUKEE – The Mount Mary College soccer team got its 2012 campaign off to a great start, splitting a pair of matches at its own Mount Mary Invite Friday and Saturday. The Blue Angels opened the season with a hearty defeat of Robert Morris University-Lake County 9-0 before falling in a tight matchup to Crown College in the tournament finale 4-2.

The Blue Angels got on the scoreboard early and often against RMU-LC Friday afternoon, as junior midfielder Emily Ristow (Sheboygan, Wis.) scored all four of her game-high goals within the first 31 minutes of the game.

"After two weeks of training, we were excited to get the games underway," head coach Joe Shokatz said. "We quickly scored two goals in the first eight minutes and never looked back."

Senior forward Rasika Perera (Oak Creek, Wis.) got the scoring going for the Blue Angels, beating her defender in the seventh minute to take the early lead. Ristow then tallied the next four goals before Perera added two more in the 39th and 40th minutes to become the second Blue Angel to earn a hat trick. Junior midfielder Allison Appmann (Racine, Wis.) added a goal late in 40th minute to surge Mount Mary to a commanding 8-0 lead at the half.

After some positional re-working in the second half, junior Nina Her added a goal in the 83rd minute on an assist from Appmann to round out the box score—a 9-0 victory for Mount Mary.

While Mount Mary truly dictated Friday's matchup against Robert Morris, Saturday's matchup with Crown proved a bit more difficult. The Blue Angels found themselves on the defensive much more often than they did Friday, as a strong and physical Storm team scored the first two goals of the game in the 17th and 34th minute. Ristow stayed quick with her feet though, notching a late first-half goal just before halftime to cut the deficit in half.

That deficit was pushed right back to two goals as Crown opened with a goal in the 52nd minute and put the game away with another in the 84th minute to go up 4-1. Another late half goal from Perera proved too little, too late for the Blue Angels, who fought hard but came up short, 4-2.

"It was a hard fought game, but in the end, our lack of depth and playing back-to-back games really wore the girls out," Shokatz said. "With a few more healthy players, I believe the outcome may have been different."

After pitching a shutout Friday, senior goalkeeper Kirby McMahon (Grayslake, Ill.) was bombarded with 18 Crown shots on goal, and had some unlucky bounces count against her. Though the 11 goals scored in the opening weekend was a great preview as to what this team can do offensively.

Mount Mary will travel to crosstown rival Alverno to take on the Inferno at 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.