Tartans Tripped Up at Home by #11 Washington

The Carnegie Mellon University women's soccer team welcomed #11 Washington University to Pittsburgh on Sunday, September 30 to open University Athletic Association play. The Bears were able to withstand the Tartans' pressure to win the game 3-0 and improve to 9-1 on the year. The Tartans suffered their first loss of the season and now sit at 6-1-2.

The Bears were able to get forward shortly after the kickoff and sophomore Anna Zambricki made it count when she scored on the first shot attempt of the game at the 2:50 mark. Zambricki's strike was her fifth of the season and came off an assist from Emily Gosche who played the ball through the center to Zambricki who only had to turn through the defense for the shot.

The Tartans recovered quickly as senior Stephanie Hare (Atlanta, Ga./The Westminster Schools) pressured the Bears with a shot that senior Clara Jaques had to stop.

At the 20-minute mark freshman Carson Quiros (Atlanta, Ga./Whitefield Academy) had a shot go wide and the Tartans later had a corner kick that was cleared by the Bear defense.

With 10 minutes to play in the half, sophomore Courtney Brant (Davie, Fla./Archbishop McCarthy) centered a cross to the 18-yard box that was headed forward by Quiros to sophomore Lucy Havens (Seattle, Wash./Holy Names Academy). Havens then put a header on goal from the six-yard box that Jaques had to stop. Two minutes later the Tartans were pressing the Bears again as Quiros put a diagonal shot on frame that Jaques denied.

The Bears nearly added to the one-goal lead before the break when Kaylin Balley's header went just wide after a short corner play by Allie Betley and Abby Starker put a cross right to the center of the goal.

Coming out of halftime, Zambricki and the Bears struck again as a ball played forward by Olivia Lillegraven bounced over the defense where Zambricki was able to win the 50-50 ball with Tartan keeper Anna Albi (Cincinnati, Ohio/Summit Country Day). Zambricki then had the open net to  tap the shot home for her second goal of the game in the 48th minute.

The Bears later were awarded a free kick from 30 yards away on the left side of the field. Kate Doyle sent the kick low and to the center of the 18-yard box where it bounced through traffic and was flicked in by Zambricki for the 3-0 advantage in the 63rd minute.

The Tartans followed the score with shots wide by freshman Louisa Pendergast (Snohomish, Wash./Glacier Peak) and junior Alex Venegas (Los Angeles, Calif./Harvard-Westlake) before Quiros had a shot stopped by Jaques in the 77th minute which held up for the shutout.

The Tartans will next travel to the University of Chicago on Saturday, October 6 for an 11:00 a.m. central time start.