South Hadley, Mass. - October 27, 2021 - First-year midfielder Avery Livingston (La Grange, Ill.) scored her first-career goal but the Mount Holyoke College soccer team fell to visiting Coast Guard in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) at the MHC Soccer Field on Wednesday evening.
With the loss, Mount Holyoke, which was playing their final home game of the 2021 season, falls to 2-12 overall and 0-9 in league play, while the Bears improve to 5-10 on the year with a 3-6 record against conference foes.
The Bears held a 27-9 advantage in shots over 90 minutes of play, while the Lyons goalkeeper Shannon Breen (Upper Saddle River, N.J.) took 13 shots on goal and came up with nine saves. Their counterpart, Hope Drake-Duval and Emily Scharnitzky split halves as Scharnitzky picked up her second win of the year making four second-half stops.
Coast Guard opened the game putting early pressure on the Lyons' goal as both Sydney Park and Sidney Palinkas produced scoring chances within the first four minutes of the game. In the 20th minute, Mount Holyoke College had their first chance of the game as Rocio Perez-Salas (Dorado, Puerto Rico) got open for a right-footed shot that carried just to the right of the cage, keeping the game scoreless.
The Lyons had another great chance on goal as Perez-Salas set up first-year forward Hannah Keochakian (Amherst, Mass.) for a scoring bid with 20:22 remaining but once again the ball sailed just wide right to keep Mount Holyoke off the board.
Pressing late, Coast Guard finally broke through with their first tally of the game with 1:25 remaining. After a ball was played into the box, Rory McPherson struck a point-blank chance that was blocked, before the rebound trickled to Kelly Wade, who converted the chance for her first goal of the season. Wade's goal cemented a 1-0 lead for the Bears at the halftime break.
The Lyons evened the score up just 9:03 into the second half as Livingston forced a turnover at the midfield, raced past a couple defenders and let a rocket go from just outside the top of the box that stung the top left corner of the net to make it 1-1.
From there, Coast Guard answered with three goals as Sidney Palinkas found the back of the net in the 63rd minute, Alexandra Murphy scored in the 75th minute and Anna Carleton converted a feed from Palinkas in the 78th minute.
Up next, Mount Holyoke College will close out the 2021 season on Saturday, October 30 as the Lyons travel to Wellesley for a NEWMAC contest with the Blue set to begin at 1 p.m.
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