The Rensselaer Red Hawks women’s soccer team came into Liberty League play looking for its first win of the season. Unfortunately for RPI it wasn’t to be, losing two close, tough games to the St. Lawrence Saints 3-2 and the Clarkson Golden Knights 1-0.

Head coach Leslie Khachadourian commented, “Our conference is one of the strongest across the board in the country for Division III. We know that all of our Liberty League games are going to be battles. This past weekend we battled well but it didn’t show up on paper and in the score.”

Against the Saints on Friday, the Red Hawks came out on fire, taking the opening kick-off into the St. Lawrence defensive end. Senior Anne Drames drew first blood as she took a pass from classmate Adele Godfrey-Certner and put it past goaltender Carly Draper just 47 seconds into the game, giving RPI a 1-0 lead.

St. Lawrence took control of the rest of the half, out-shooting RPI 7-1. In the 26th minute, the Saints tied the game when Nikki Lopez, who had entered the game less than a minute before, beat senior goalie Regina Primm. On the ensuing kickoff, St. Lawrence midfielder Liz Masterson stole the ball and put it into the back of the net, giving the Saints the lead just eight seconds after tying it.

Ten minutes later, Lopez again found pay dirt as she took a pass from Julie Giller and beat Primm, leaving the Red Hawks in a 3-1 hole going into halftime.

In the second half, St. Lawrence continued to dominate play, getting nine shots to RPI’s four. The Red Hawks would be the ones to find the net, however. Ten minutes from the final whistle, senior Liz Vitaliano fed a pass to freshman Andi Trinward.

Trinward took a shot that found its way past Draper, recording her first collegiate goal and cutting the Saints’ lead to one. It was too little too late however, as RPI couldn’t find the net again and fell by the final score of 3-2.

Draper finished with three saves in the win and Primm recorded eight in the loss.

“SLU took advantage of our lull when they scored two goals in quick succession,” said Khachadourian. “We came back in full force, had them on their heels and out played them in the second half, but again, it was too late of an effort.”

Saturday, the Red Hawks again took the field looking for their first win. The first half of the game was very uneventful as neither team could drive the ball deep into the other team’s end, with Clarkson out shooting Rensselaer 2-1, none of which made it on goal.

The Red Hawks picked up the pressure, getting off 10 shots to the Golden Knights five, in the second half. Clarkson keeper Megan Emlaw was up to the task however, stopping all five of RPI’s shots on goal.

In the 52nd minute, Alicia Chace ran through the midfield and sent a pass through to Jennifer Urquhart. Urquhart took a shot from 15 yards out that skidded along the ground and beat Primm to give the Golden Knights the only goal of the game. The Red Hawks walked away with their fifth straight one-goal loss.

Primm had three saves for RPI, who are now 0-5-1 on the season, and 0-2-0 in Liberty League.

“We are battling our own demons right now,” Khachadourian said of her team’s five one goal losses. “We need to play for the full 90 minutes and develop a mental toughness that gets us through the pressure situations.”

The Red Hawks will again look to get into the win column on the road when they travel to Vassar on Friday at 4 pm in their only game of the week.