William and Mary (4-6) was defeated 2-0 by Richmond (5-4) Friday before suffering another 1-0 loss to Davidson (5-4) Sunday at Busch Field. No longer undefeated at home, the Tribe is now on a three-game losing streak.
The Tribe faced Richmond in the rain, but the conditions didn’t slow down the pace of the game.
“The Tribe doesn’t really mind the rain,” senior goalkeeper Meredith Savage said. “A light drizzle kind of gives us energy, and makes us want to pick up, step out and bring the energy to the field.”
Savage made six saves, including a helmet save, and contributed in shutting down seven corners by Richmond.
The Spiders outshot the College 9-2 in the first half but the period ended with a flat score of 0-0. The Tribe was able to block Richmond’s momentum until seven minutes into the second period when Spider forward Katrina Balatgek scored her first goal of the season with an assist by teammate Hannah Thomson.
“The first goal was rather unfortunate,” Savage said. “A tipper was in front of my pads and got a touch around but I made a dive and it was just in front of the line and she ended up just touching it over my stick and it [went] in.”
With 10 minutes left in the second half Balatgek scored the game-winning second goal despite a Tribe rush on the Spider goal in the last minute of the game.
Head coach Tess Ellis attributed some recent team injuries as a likely disadvantage.
“We knew it was going to be tough because of the two injuries that we have with [sophomore midfielders]Estelle [Hughes] and Erin Menges,” Ellis said. “We weren’t planning on that, so it certainly meant [that] some players had to step off the bench and give quality time in the middle.”
Richmond now has a seven-game winning streak against the Tribe, who has yet to beat them since 2008.
The College returned to Busch Field Sunday only to be defeated again, this time 1-0 to Davidson. The College outshot the Wildcats 14-9 and totaled six penalty corners, on which they were unable to capitalize.
“The other joy of having [Hughes] and [Menges] injured is that they’re also our stick-trappers so it certainly upset our corner rhythm,” Ellis said.
59 minutes and 42 seconds into the turf battle, Davidson was finally able to get a shot past the pads of Savage and into the Tribe goal. This proved to be all they needed to get the win and leave the College with another home loss.
“I think it rattled us just having the change in personnel and moving people around, which we’d rather deal with now than before we come to conference,” Ellis said.
The Tribe plays its first conference opponent of the season when it travels to Delaware Friday.
