This past season, the women’s soccer team at Southern Vermont College has been playing catch up to get a chance to participate in the NECC playoffs. At the beginning, the Mountaineers had a rough start, losing against Mount Holyoke College and Sage College, both games being shutouts. The team’s bruised ego then lead them to lose a couple more games, causing a low ranking position in the conference. But, as the season carried on, cheerful spirits sprung from the team after winning three conference games in a row, making the team believe that they still had a chance to come back.

On October 18th, women’s soccer had to face one of their biggest, long time competitors, Becker College. Knowing this game was going to be a battle, the team knew they had to come out strong and be the first to score. With this mindset, the team had the lead during the whole game, granting them a four-to-two victory over their opponent. This win bumped up SVC’s ranking position, giving them the opportunity to possibly have a home game for the first time in playoffs.

With the playoffs coming up soon, there was still one more challenge the team had to overcome: Bay Path University. After a rough Fall 2015 season, Bay Path had been looking for revenge. Being an all around better team this year, SVC knew that the game against Bay Path was going to be a long and trying fight. Still, SVC expected to win…

At the beginning of the game, both teams came out strong, not letting anyone score. As the first half ended, neither team had put one up on the scoreboard. Both teams were on edge, hoping that they would be the first to get a goal in the second half, giving them an advantage. But spending almost all of the second half battling for a goal, Bay Path was able to sneak one past SVC goalie, Melissa Mascari, making the score one-to-zero. With there only being five minutes left on the clock, it wasn’t enough time for SVC to make a comeback, ending the game with a loss.

Although SVC had lost the game, they had earned enough points over the season to make a spot in the NECC playoffs. “We have to work hard now; we need to stay focused,” starting player Stephany Ferreira said, “Since we lost, we have to play Bay Path again for the quarterfinals. We know how they play now. We can beat them.”

At the start of the game on Saturday, both teams came out strong, but Bay Path was able to sneak a goal past SVC goalie, Melissa Mascari, making the score one-to-zero. With three minutes left in the first half, SVC was able to score a goal to tie. This had both teams on edge. SVC hoping that they could take over the game, while Bay Path was fighting to take the lead once more.

Going into the second half of the game, SVC came out flat, letting Bay Path have control of the ball for most of the time, which cost SVC. Bay Path player, Elena Helming, was able to score a goal at the 72:25 mark, bumping up the score two-to-one. Bay Path had taken the lead, causing SVC to panic. But, it wouldn’t be long until Bay Path scored another goal by Jailinne Ruiz at the 78:06 mark, making the score three-to-one.

With very little time left in the half, SVC was not going to give up. But, due to a mistake that Bay Path had made on the field, a team goal was scored by SVC. As the clock went out, Bay Path had once again defeated SVC with a final score of three-to-two. Although SVC had lost in the quarterfinals, ending their season, they hope to come back as an even stronger team for the Fall 2017 season.