With less than two minutes left in Sunday’s match, William and Mary took a timeout. The Tribe was down by one goal against Hofstra. The first of the team’s six important Colonial Athletic Association matchups was on the line.
Twenty seconds after the timeout, senior midfielder Abby Corkum put her twelfth of the season into the back of the net to tie the game at 14 apiece, saving the match and sending the game into overtime. Despite this resilient comeback effort from the College, however, the first ball to find netting in overtime came off of the stick of a Hofstra player, felling the Tribe 15-14 in the extra period.
The Tribe (4-8, 0-1 CAA) was first to open scoring in Sunday’s match against the Pride (7-5, 1-1 CAA), when goals from freshman attacker Sophie Kopec and sophomore midfielder Meredith Hughes put the College up 2-0 not even two minutes into the match. The Pride didn’t let the Tribe sit in the lead for long, however, and answered with two tallies of its own to tie the match at 2-2 six minutes into the game.
After back-and-forth tallies for a few minutes, Hofstra pulled ahead to lead the match 9-4 as the whistle sounded to end the first half.
The Tribe wasn’t fazed by the daunting deficit heading into the back half. Kopec, Hughes and Corkum combined to score the first five goals of the second half to tie the game at 9-9 just seven minutes in. The College couldn’t keep the momentum going, however, allowing the next four tallies to Hofstra as the Pride took at 13-9 lead.
With time running down, the College attempted to chip away at the Hofstra lead. Goals by Kopec and senior midfielder McKinley Wade, in addition to a successful free position shot by Corkum, cut Hofstra’s lead to 13-12. The Pride managed to grab one more back, however, padding its lead to two with a score of 14-12 with nine minutes remaining in the game.
With the game on the line, the College controlled the last few minutes of the match. It dominated the Pride 7-2 in shots in the waning minutes of the second, connecting for two clutch goals from Kopec and Corkum to tie the match at 14-14. Despite three shots after the tying goal, the Tribe couldn’t take the lead in the final seconds of the game, and the two CAA teams went into overtime tied at 14.
It took just under two minutes of overtime to determine the game. The first shot to be taken in the extra period was the Hofstra goal. With that, the win went to the away team, marking the Tribe’s first conference loss of the season and their fourth loss in a row.
Despite leading Hofstra in shots 33-29, the Tribe got fewer balls on net (21-24). Kopec led the Tribe with her five-goal performance, with Hughes coming in just behind with four. Sophomore goaltender Elsa Rall led the Tribe’s goaltending contingent with five saves and just two goals against in her 20 minutes in net. Senior goaltender Claire Duchene recorded her first loss of the year, making her 2-1 on the season.
With the loss, the Tribe falls to 4-8 on the season. The team will continue to fight for its first conference victory of the season in its next home matchup Friday against CAA opponent James Madison.