Soccer

MILWAUKEE – The Mount Mary College soccer team ran into a buzzsaw Friday afternoon on its own soccer pitch, as visiting Spalding University dominated the Blue Angels in a 4-0 victory.

It was a beautiful fall day weather-wise, but Mount Mary (2-3) experienced a storm of Spalding attacks as the Golden Eagles (5-1) held possession for much of the game. When the dust settled, Spalding outshot Mount Mary 41-9 and put 21 of those shots on goal. While Mount Mary's senior goalkeeper Kirby McMahon (Grayslake, Ill.) managed to save 17 of those attempts, Spalding's pressure on both sides of the ball was too much for the host Blue Angels to get anything going offensively.

"The emotion was really lacking. And while we played hard, it was without much passion," head coach Joe Shokatz said.

Spalding scored a pair of goals midway through the second half to take a 2-0 lead at the break. The Golden Eagles responded in the second half with another early goal from its starting left forward Heather Stillwell in the 52nd minute and she added another in the 75th minute to end the scoring at 4-0.

Mount Mary did have a handful of opportunities, as junior Emily Ristow (Sheboygan, Wis.) and senior Rasika Perera (Oak Creek, Wis.) had some breakaway attempts, but neither Mount Mary scoring threat found the back of the net.

While the loss drops the season mark below .500 on the year, the roster continued to grow with the addition of freshman Mollee Ostrenga (Escanaba, Mich.) in Friday's matchup against Spalding. After what seemed like a struggle simply to field enough athletes—in fact finishing the first couple games with fewer than 11 players—the recent additions of Ostrenga, junior Vanessa Schellinger (West Bend, Wis.) and freshman Barwako Osman (Milwaukee, Wis.) have enabled head coach Joe Shokatz to utilize some much-needed substitutes. Yet despite a full roster on paper, things just didn't seem to "click" according to Shokatz.

"We were hoping that it would be our first game with our entire roster available and helpful," Shokatz said. "A few players were late to the field and we never really got into the game."

Mount Mary returns to action Wednesday for just its second road game of the season at Robert Morris University – Lake County. The Blue Angels have already beaten the Eagles this season—9-0 in the season opener for both squads—at Mount Mary's Blue Angel Invitational.