Mejail Amasses 400 Career Wins as Merrimack Prevails in NE-10 Opener
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass.- The Merrimack women's
soccer team (1-1-1, 1-0-0 NE-10) posted its first win of the 2010
season, downing Adelphi (0-1-1, 0-1-0 NE-10) 2-1 Friday night. The
win gives head coach Gabe Mejail 400 career victories. Mejail is
the winningest coach in Division II history and ranks fifth among
the all-time leaders in all of NCAA women's soccer.
Danielle Dion
(North Grosvenordale, Conn.) tallied her first collegiate
goal, seven minutes into the contest. Lindsey deMont
(Littleton, Mass.) played a ball over the top of the
Panther backline for Dion to run onto. The freshman sprinted 20
yards, leaving the Adelphi defenders in her wake, before slipping
the ball into the side-netting to put up the Warriors up 1-0 early
on.
The Panthers netted an equalizer just five minutes later as Kim
Volinski knocked in a rebound off her own shot to knot the score at
1-1.
The two teams played an even first half as the Warriors held the
advantage in shots, 5-4. Adelphi owned the edge in corners,
3-2.
Both squads had opportunities and close calls in the second half
of play. Merrimack's Ashley Alnwick
(Groton, Mass.) had a header sail wide from within the
goal box. Adelphi's Brianne McDonnell watched as her shot flew just
past the far post on a strike from distance.
In the 77th minute, Dion tracked a ball down on the end line in
the Warriors' offensive third and played it across the goal box to
Jenn
Pino (North Andover, Mass.) running through. Pino
settled the ball and calmly buried it into the left corner of the
goal, putting the home team ahead 2-1.
Merrimack fired 15 shots while Adelphi mustered eight for the
game. Kiley Horne
(Scituate, Mass.) made two saves between the pipes for the
Warriors as she earned her first win of the 2010 campaign. Horne's
counterpart, Dorothy Connolly turned aside six shots for
Adelphi.
Next on the slate for Merrimack is a Northeast-10 conference
game at New Haven, Sept. 12.
