It truly was a day for celebration as the women’s soccer team emerged victorious on Saturday, October 12, over Bard College in a shutout. It was also the team’s day to acknowledge and show their gratitude to the six senior members of the squad for their participation and hard work for the past four years, with a short ceremony before the start of the competition. The triumph did not end there, though—what better way to continue the fun than to crush the opponent?
The first half of the game remained scoreless. Although Rensselaer led with ten shots compared to Bard’s four and also held a 4-3 corner kick advantage, neither team could seem to find the proper execution for points. Both teams went into the intermission hungry for something to be onto the scoreboard, but the Engineers proved who deserved ultimate dominance once the second half began. A quick goal just under five minutes into the second by Giana Aballe finally put some numbers onto the board and sparked the start of RPI’s success throughout the remainder of the game. The senior forward picked the ball off of a Raptor defender and fired the ball low into the left end of the net for her third goal of the season, and from that point on, Bard stayed out while RPI pushed back on in. Ten minutes later, Aballe scored once again to put the Engineers up by two with a header inside the post after fellow senior Brooke Van Baush gave a long pass down the field. The Rensselaer team became ecstatic at this point, and the win was made complete when freshman forward Ali Zumpetta passed the ball cross-field from the right side to senior defender Alex Shaw just two minutes before the end of the game. This was Shaw’s first goal of the season.
Overall, senior goalkeeper Steph Vargas recorded two saves for RPI while Bard goalie Kelsey O’Brien saved three. The Engineers outshot the Raptors 20-4 and added two more corner kicks to their tally from the first half. All players contributed excellently that afternoon, especially the six fantastic young women who have dedicated their past four years here at RPI to the women’s soccer team amongst their studies and other extracurricular activities. Congratulations to Steph Vargas, Sara Rothschild, Sam Lamorte, Brooke Van Baush, and captains Giana Aballe, Taylor Korytko, and Brittany Van Grouw and best of luck in their years to come after Rensselaer.
RPI women’s soccer is now at an 8-3-1 season cumulatively and a 3-1-0 record in the league. Join the team this Friday at 4pm as they take on one of their biggest challenges yet, nationally-ranked William Smith College.