SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- The Mount Holyoke College soccer team fell behind 2-0 in the opening 15 minutes to the visiting Wentworth Institute of Technology, with the help of a penalty shot in the 15th minute, and the Lyons couldn't complete a comeback as they fell 3-2 on Saturday afternoon.
Wentworth's Diana Bruggeman scored both of the Leopards' first two goals, and Adriana Valenti added a crucial insurance goal in the 36th minute.
Mount Holyoke sophomore Hannah Keochakian (Amherst, Mass.) also scored twice in the game, giving her three goals in the past two games to match her team-leading total from the 2021 season.
In the 10th minute, Bruggeman got free on a breakaway down the left side of the field, got past the one MHC defender in her path, and used her left foot to squeeze a low shot between Lyons goalkeeper Clarissa Govea (Pico Rivera, Calif.) and the far right post.
Less than five minutes later, the Lyons were whistled for a foul inside the far edge of the penalty area, and the Leopards were awarded with a penalty kick. Bruggeman stepped up and buried her low shot inside the left post for a 2-0 lead.
Undaunted, the Lyons cut the deficit in half in the 29th minute. First-year defender Emme Hackett (Scottsdale, Ariz.) threw into the Wentworth penalty area where first-year Jane Harmon (Ashburnham, Mass.) alertly met the ball and one-timed a perfect pass to Keochakian, who got off an open shot that evaded the reach of Wentworth goalie Adrianna Arona and tucked under the crossbar for the score.
But Wentworth regained a two-goal lead in the 36th minute, as Jessica Valenti carried into the right side of the box and drilled a perfectly placed shot from a tight angle that traveled over Govea's reach and into the left netting.
Wentworth's lead remained at 3-1 until the 71st minute of the game. Mount Holyoke senior Posy LaBombard (Waitsfield, Vt.) tracked down a loose ball in the Wentworth end of the field and chipped a perfect pass into the box for Keochakian, who tapped the ball once before sliding it under a charging Arona and into the net, closing the gap to 3-2.
Two of Govea's six saves in the game came on point-blank attempts by the Leopards in the second half.
Arona made six saves in Wentworth's win.
Mount Holyoke will open NEWMAC play next Saturday, Sept. 17 at Springfield College, starting at 1pm.
