Things didn’t exactly go as planned for the Plattsburgh State women’s soccer team last weekend, as it dropped its first two SUNYAC tilts.
The Cardinals (5-3, 1-1) lost 2-1 in Brockport Friday before losing a 1-0 game in Geneseo Saturday.
PSUC’s lone goal on the weekend came against Brockport (4-4,1-1) in a game that Armellino thought the team had some good chances in.
“We just didn’t convert,” Armellino said. “That’s ok, because that’s going to happen in soccer sometimes. The problem was that we lost our grit after that. We let the day get the best of us.”
Senior defender Jessica Mangieri scored her second collegiate goal off of a penalty kick in the 84th minute of the game. Just over a minute later, the Golden Eagles scored to regain the lead.
“We had someone inside the lady that scored,” Armellino said, “we just weren’t goal side of her. We let her just touch the ball and release, and she hit a beautiful shot, and there was nothing [graduate student goalie] Taylor Adams could do.They capitalized, and we didn’t.”
Against Geneseo (5-2-1, 2-0), PSUC started well, notching six shots to the Knights’ seven in the scoreless first half.
The Cards’ problem was, once again, not finishing strong.
“In the second half, they honestly just came at us harder,” Armellino said. “I think a couple of us got fatigued, and it got the best of us.”
Armellino knows that the team will have to show more drive moving forward.
“It’s about finding consistency,” Armellino said. “It’s not good enough to be good for 45 minutes; soccer is a 90 minute game.”
Today, PSUC gets a non-conference chance to work on that consistency against St. Lawrence (5-0-1) at home.
Armellino cited improving the team’s shape as it moves up the field and the team’s movement into space on the attack as aspects they’ll be working on.
“We literally were just giving them the ball, Armellino said. “We need to find the gaps to lay into our players.This weekend, we gave the ball away quite a bit. It’s harder on you when you beat yourselves.”
Tonight’s 7 p.m. game against the undefeated Saints looks to be a tough test for the Cards, but that’s the way Armellino wanted it.
“St. Lawrence is undefeated right now,” Armellino said. “They’re always good, they’re always athletic and they want to play quality ball. I think it’s going to be another great game for us. We choose challenging non-conference opponents for a reason.”
