Men’s and women’s soccer had a busy weekend as they hosted two teams for three games at the Banta Bowl on Saturday and Sunday. Both teams also celebrated their senior players with ceremonies before the men’s game on Saturday and the women’s game on Sunday. Overall, there were mixed results for the Vikings, as the games ended in a loss, a tie and a win.
The weekend kicked off with the men’s team playing Midwest Conference competitor Cornell College on Saturday at 11am. Before the game, seniors Sean McLaughlin, Jack Morrissey, AJ Shanahan, Albert Zhang and Mark Todd were honored. The game started off rocky for the Vikings, with the Rams scoring just under three minutes into the game, and again at the 17:27 mark to cement their early lead. This momentum was broken when Cornell was whistled for a handball, which led to Sean McLaughlin scoring Lawrence’s first goal on a penalty kick. After 20 more minutes of intense play and another Cornell goal, Jack Morrissey scored again for the Vikings on a free kick two minutes before the end of the first half. The score at halftime was 3-2, with the Rams in the lead. The second half started off strong for the Vikings with Eamon Rougvie scoring his first career goal early on, with Jack Morrissey on the assist. This tie was maintained until the 66:01 mark when Cornell scored their fourth goal of the game. It was looking like a loss for the Vikings until Konstantinos Fardellas, assisted by Mark Todd, scored with just 3.1 seconds left in the game to bring the final score to a 4-4 tie. Another notable player was goalie Nason Lancina, who stopped 10 shots during the course of the game.
The women’s team played Cornell College on Saturday as well, with the game starting at 1:30pm. Although the Vikings had a large advantage in possession and fired off a total of 19 shots against the Rams, they were unable to score throughout the game. Cornell scored twice in the second half, at the 48:50 and 89:33 marks, securing a Midwest Conference victory.
The Vikings had better luck at their senior day game against the non-conference Mount Mary University on Sunday. Seniors Charlotte Linebarger, Samantha Tolu and Sarah Yochem were honored before the match and dominated play during it. Makenzy Dreher scored the first goal for Lawrence early on in the game, assisted by Erica Grube. Samantha Tolu then achieved a hat-trick in under eleven minutes, scoring at the 13:19, 21:46 and 23:46 marks, the first of which was a penalty kick with the last two assisted by Madi Jones and Erica Grube respectively. Lawrence continued to rack up the points with Kaitlyn Khazen scoring at the 30:29 mark with Natalie Linebarger on the assist, and defender Charlotte Linebarger’s first career goal assisted by Natalie Linebarger and Sophia Morin at the 43:33 mark, which led to a six-point lead over the Blue Angels after the first half. The second half saw Sarah Yochem, longtime goalie for the Vikings, play in the field and score her first career goal less than three minutes in, with Samantha Tolu and Makenzy Dreher on the assist. Kaitlyn Khazen, assisted by Sydney Allen, scored her second goal of the game 16 minutes into the half. Erica Grube, assisted by Kaitlyn Khazen and Jaicey Stanich, scored her first career goal at the 71:07 mark, securing the Vikings’ sweeping 9-0 victory over Mount Mary.
The next week will see both teams face off against Beloit College and Monmouth College for a spot in the Midwest Conference championships. The women’s and men’s teams will play Beloit on Wednesday, Oct. 26 and Thursday, Oct. 27, respectively, and both teams will play Monmouth on Saturday, Oct. 29.