SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- Emerson College scored on a pair of free kicks two minutes apart in the first half, and it was enough for the visiting Lions to win 2-0 over Mount Holyoke College Saturday in a NEWMAC women's soccer game at MHC Soccer Field.
Emerson (5-2-2, 2-0 NEWMAC) won its third straight game, while Mount Holyoke (1-8, 0-3 NEWMAC) dropped its sixth in a row.
Emerson was awarded a penalty kick in the 34th minute after first-year defender Ada Siepmann (Vlotho, Germany) was charged with causing Emerson forward Alianna West-Rodrigues to trip and fall in the Mount Holyoke penalty area. Yoshiko Slater took the shot and deposited it into the right side of the net for a 1-0 lead. It was the fourth time this season the Lyons been scored upon with a penalty kick.
Another foul whistled on Siepmann led to Emerson's second goal less than two minutes later, with 10 minutes remaining in the first half.
No more than two yards from the top of the penalty area, Siepmann was charged with a foul on Simone Barragan-Shaw, leading to an Emerson free kick from 19 yards out. Mount Holyoke defenders set up a wall not far from the spot where the penalty kick had been teed up minutes earlier, but Cali Bruce's direct kick sailed high enough to travel over the defenders' heads, but low enough to dip under the crossbar for a 2-0 lead. The placement of the kick was similar to one scored by MIT against the Lyons one week earlier, and another impossible shot for Govea to defend.
Mount Holyoke's defense held strong for the remainder of the game, but the Lyons couldn't cut into the Emerson lead. The visiting Lions outshot the host Lyons by a 26-9 margin, including a 12-2 difference in the first half and a 14-7 difference in the second half.
Mount Holyoke first-year goalkeeper Clarissa Govea (Pico Rivera, Calif.) made 15 saves but was denied a clean sheet by the two hard-luck goals scored by Emerson. For the Lions, Amara Schaub made five saves in a shutout effort.
Mount Holyoke sophomore Hannah Keochakian (Amherst, Mass.) put two shots on goal for the Lyons. First-year players Taryn White (Alexandria, Va.), Jessica Drent (Kapa'a, Hawaii) and Maia Lane (Chicago, Ill.) also put shots on net.
Mount Holyoke next plays at Keene State on Tuesday at 5pm in non-conference action.
