Noga leads women's soccer to big win over Gmason

[mat1992]

(from TU Athletic Media Relations)


Towson, Md. – Senior Holly Noga (Severna Park H.S./Severna Park, Md.) scored her team-leading fourth goal of the season in the game’s third minute as the Tigers (6-9-0, 3-4-0) held on to defeat George Mason University (7-6-4, 2-3-2) by a 1-0 margin in a Colonial Athletic Association game at Towson Center Field on Sunday afternoon.

Noga gave the Tigers the one-goal lead at 2:42, taking passes from junior Jen Van Horn (Lenape H.S./Southampton, N.J.) and sophomore Shannon Jackson (River Hill H.S./Columbia, Md.) in front of the goal and scoring the eventual game-winning goal.

Noga now has 25 goals in her career, breaking a tie with Courtney McClelland, ’95 for second place on Towson’s career goal scoring list. Christi Landi, ’97 holds the school record with 27 career goals.

George Mason had several scoring opportunities following the Noga goal, but the Tiger defense and senior goalkeeper Yasmin Alter (Archbishop Spalding H.S./Bowie, Md.) held the Patriots scoreless for the final 87 minutes of the game.

Alter made a season-high eight saves in posting her fifth shutout of the season. Junior Sarah Coughlin (Westlake H.S./Hawthorne, N.Y.) made five saves for the visiting Patriots.

The Patriots outshot Towson by an 11-8 margin.

Last season, George Mason defeated the Tigers by 1-0 in Fairfax.

The win enabled the Tigers to celebrate Senior Day with a win for the fourth straight season. All six seniors started and were honored in pre-game ceremonies.

[GMU/Towson fan]

Brent Kennedy
The Towerlight

It was only fitting that on the Tigers' senior day, it was two senior leaders that stepped up to produce a 1-0 victory over George Mason.

In the final home game for the team's six seniors, there was a sense of urgency in the play of all the Tiger players. But it was a goal by senior Holly Noga and eight saves by senior goalkeeper Yasmin Alter that led the way to the Tigers' fourth straight win on senior day.

"There is always a little more intensity out of all the players, and we are establishing a tradition of winning our senior game every season," Head Coach Leslie Wray said. "Holly and Yasmin each came up big, but so did almost everyone else. We needed that kind of effort today against a tough George Mason team."

Noga got things rolling for the Tigers when she scored her fourth goal of the season--25th of her career--2:42 into the game. Sophomore Shannon Jackson and junior Jen Van Horn each picked up assists on the goal.

Two days earlier, against James Madison, the Tigers jumped out to an early lead but faltered down the stretch and ended up losing 2-1.

While Wray said that losing that game was especially tough, she said it taught her team a valuable lesson.

"You never want to suffer a loss like Friday, but we learned from that what it takes to hold on to a lead," Wray said. "You could tell we were more composed in that second half today, and I think having been in that same situation the game before played into that."

George Mason's best offensive opportunity of the game came on a breakaway by Sarah Wilkinson, which Alter deflected over the net. Besides that point blank chance, though, most of the Patriots shots came from outside the box, which was something Alter said was key.

"The players in front of me played so well today that almost all the saves I had to make were easy ones," Alter said. "It's so much easier to save balls that are constantly coming from farther away."

Going into Sunday the Tigers (6-9, 3-4) had failed to get over the hump against the top teams in the CAA, but their win over the Patriots (7-6-4, 2-3-2) changed that.

"It is one thing to go out and beat the teams below you in the standings, but by beating Mason I think we prove that we can knock off anyone," senior Martha Bielefeld said.

This weekend the Tigers finish out the regular season against UNC Wilmington and VCU.

"We head into next weekend controlling whether or not we make the [CAA] tournament," Wray said. "Our goal was to not play ourselves out of things this weekend, and by getting three points I think we accomplished that."

[GMU/Towson fan]

http://media.thetowerlight.com/vimages/shared/vnews/stories/3f9c9b3e3a986-51-1.jpg
Tiger midfielder Emily Sykes battles for the ball with James Madison forward Christy Metzker in the Tigers 2-1 loss Friday. Metzker scored the Dukes first goal on a penalty kick midway through the second half. (Photo by Lisa Johnson)




http://media.thetowerlight.com/vimages/shared/vnews/stories/3f9c9b3e3a986-51-2.jpg
The Tigers victory over George Mason on Sunday was their fourth straight win on senior day. (Photo by Steve Lafferty)