DUDLEY, Mass. (Oct. 24) – The Nichols College women’s soccer team handed the University of New England its first loss in over a month in a 2-1 The Commonwealth Coast Conference victory at Vendetti Field Saturday afternoon. The win extends the Bison’s win streak to four and moves Nichols to 9-8 overall and 6-6 on the year. The Nor’Easters dip to 13-2 overall and 10-2 in conference play.
The Bison’s Chelsea Shaughnessy (Halifax, Mass.) and Samantha Abro (Northborough, Mass.) teamed up to give Nichols a 2-0 lead in the opening frame and goalkeeper Nicole Johnson (Westhampton, Mass.) made eight saves in the game to earn the win.
Shaughnessy snapped the Nor’Easters’ shutout streak of over 351 minutes that spanned five games just 31 seconds into the game with her fourth goal of the year. Abro chipped the ball ahead to the sophomore, who then carried into the right side of the box before lofting it in over Nor’Easters’ goalkpeer Leigh Engel.
In the 15th minute, Shaughnessy returned the favor to Abro to give Nichols a two-goal advantage. Jessica Ferris (Springfield, Mass.) got the play rolling with a free kick from almost 30 yards out, and Shaughnessy fired on a loose ball in front of the net. It deflected off a UNE defender right to Abro’s foot at the near post for the first-year forward’s league-leading 21st goal of the year.
Play remained tight through the half with Johnson registering four saves to Engel’s three.
Karina Scavo cut the Bison’s lead in half in the 76th minute with her fifth marker of the year. After collecting a pass at midfield from Julia Furtado, Scavo carried it the rest of the way past a Bison defender before firing into the upper left of the net.
Johnson finished with four saves in each half, while Engel suffered her second loss of the year with three in the first half.
Nichols wraps up the TCCC regular season at Colby-Sawyer on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. University of New England hosts Western New England College Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in its TCCC regular-season finale.
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