Garnet Women Drop Heartbreaker to Gettysburg, 3-2 (20T)
SWARTHMORE, Pa. - The Swarthmore College women’s soccer team (7-6-2, 5-3) rallied from two-goals down with under 25 minutes to play in the second half, but could not push the game-winner across in two overtime periods as it fell, 3-2, to the Gettysburg Bullets (11-5, 6-2) on Saturday evening at Clothier Field in front of a huge crowd in attendance for Swarthmore’s Garnet Homecoming and Senior Day.
Peterson scored the Garnet's first goal of the game on a blast from 25-yards out.
Celebrating the decorated careers of seniors Laura Bolger, Liz Mills, Megan Colombo, Hannah Purkey, Kelsey Cline and Kirsten Peterson , the Garnet offense came firing out of the gate, as it outshot Gettysburg 10-5 in the first half. However, Gettysburg was slightly more efficient when it came to converting opportunities, scoring two goals on its first two shots on goal - a penalty kick by Laura Johnson in the 13th minute and a blast by Casey Attanasio in the 55th minute - to build a 2-0 lead into the second half
However, due to continued persistence and a stroke of luck, the Garnet got right back into the game brought the boisterous crowd at Clothier Field to its feet. In the 64th minute, Swarthmore’s 15th shot of the day finally found the back of the net, as senior Peterson scored on a beautiful blast from nearly 25 yards out to cut the Gettysburg advantage to 2-1. Two minutes later, senior defender Bolger’s free kick from 45-yards out hit a Gettysburg defender in the head, which deflected into the net for the game-tying own goal.
From there, the game remained deadlocked, with Swarthmore creating several scoring opportunities, only finding itself unable to convert. The game headed into overtime, and despite dominating play for entire first overtime period, the Bullets came up with the game-winner 22 seconds into the second overtime period, as Casey Attanasio's second goal of the day proved to be the deciding goal.
Still in the playoff hunt, the Garnet will attempt to right the ship when it takes on Haverford on Tuesday in the final home match of the season. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m.
Video: A final send-off to the team's 6 seniors: