Box Score

DUDLEY, Mass. – The Nichols College women's soccer team was defeated by UMass Dartmouth 5-0 in non-conference action Tuesday night at Vendetti Field.

Seniors Jordan Lipner-Riza (Worcester, Mass.), Tori Pierce (Tiverton, R.I.), Jillian Van Ness (Agawam, Mass.), and Kelsey Leandro (Dartmouth, R.I.), along with freshman Erica Farias (Tiverton, R.I.), each scored for the Corsairs, who improved to 8-3-1 with the win. The loss drops the Bison to 5-8-0.

The Corsairs struck for two goals in the opening 5:06 of the match to take an early 2-0 lead. Lipner-Riza opened the scoring at 2:18 when she poked in a cross from junior Maura Gonsalves (Dartmouth, Mass.) at the left side of the net. Less than three minutes later, Pierce netted her team-leading sixth of the season as she tucked a shot from 18-yards out inside the right post. Gonsalves was credited with the assist on the marker.

Nichols had two quality scoring chances in the first half but came up short on both. Freshman Natalie Dawes (Amesbury, Mass.) raced past the defense and broke in alone on senior goalkeeper Michelle Miller (Westford, Mass.), but her shot rolled wide of the left post. Later in the stanza, senior captain Julie Monroe (Whitman, Mass.) fired a free kick ticketed for the left corner that sailed wide.

In the second half, Van Ness gave her team a three-goal edge in the 55th minute. She broke down the right side of the field, cut in towards the Nichols net and, while warding off a defender, booted a shot from close range past junior goalkeeper Sarah Whitestone (Dalton, Mass.). Farias scored her first of the season in the 79th minute, and Leandro capped the scoring with a penalty kick goal with 3:02 remaining. Her shot beat Whitestone low and inside the left post.

Miller recorded two saves to earn the win for UMass Dartmouth while Whitestone tallied eight saves for Nichols, which has not scored a goal in its last three matches. UMD outshot the Bison 27-6.

The Bison return to action on Saturday with a 12:30 p.m. match at Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) foe Roger Williams. The Corsairs host Keene State Saturday at 1 p.m.