Gettysburg takes down Johns Hopkins 2-1
Junior Cailin DiGiacomo and the Bullets have earned their first national ranking since 2005. (Photo courtesy of David Sinclair, GCC&M)
By Taylor Atlas, Contributing Writer
It was a cold and rainy afternoon in Baltimore, MD this past Saturday, November 1. Despite the gloomy sky and slick wet field, there was a sense of celebration in the air surrounding Homewood Field at Johns Hopkins University for the Gettysburg women’s soccer team.
For the first time in a decade, the Bullets beat the Blue Jays of Johns Hopkins University 2-1, who at the time were ranked sixth in the entire nation.
“It’s an unreal feeling to finally beat them,” junior Melissa Seidner said.
The importance of the game was stressed from the beginning. “Going into the game coach had been talking about it all week,” Seidner shared. “He kept telling us that we need to go into it with only positive thoughts so that’s what I was really trying to do.”
The Bullets knew that winning the game would definitely be a huge lift for the team. A win against Hopkins meant clinching first place for in Centennial Conference regular season play, being undefeated in conference all season, and it meant that they would host the conference championships this coming weekend at Clark Field, all of which were goals for the Bullets at the start of the season.
“We’ve talked before as a team about doing things that past teams have not been able to do, and beating Hopkins was on the list,” Seidner commented.
At first, it seemed as though the opportunity was going to slip out of the Bullets’ hands before they had time to take it, as Sydney Teng of JHU scored 22 minutes into the game, giving them the lead. However, their celebration was short lived as two minutes later junior Lauren Schapiro scored for the Bullets, a goal which not only tied the game back up but electrified the spirits of the entire Gettysburg team.
“Lauren’s goal made me realize that we could do this. We were hanging in with them and we could actually do this,” senior Mary Kamovitch said.
The game went into the half tied 1-1, and the Bullets were feeling good. They knew they were in this game, but they also knew they had 45 more minutes to play and wanted to come out of Homewood Field with nothing but a win.
Halftime did nothing to slow down the speeding Bullets, who started the second half with the same energy they had throughout the first. In the 62nd minute of the game, senior Brigid Behan scored what would be the game winning goal off of a pass across the top of the box from senior Georgia Ferguson and a sneaky finish into the lower left side of the goal.
Running with her arms up in the air and joining together with her teammates on the field to celebrate, the excitement was clearly visible throughout the entire Bullets side. Among those players was Seidner.
“I was so happy. I had done my work to get the play started so when Brigid got the ball I was out of the play, but when she scored I was ecstatic and sprinted to congratulate her on the goal,” Seidner shared. “Then I immediately looked at the clock as I was running back to see how much longer we had to keep the lead.”
The game was significant for many reasons, not least of which was Gettysburg becoming nationally ranked according to the NSCAA coaches poll. The Bullets are now ranked 19th in the nation, an accomplishment they have not achieved since 2005.
“I’ve never been nationally ranked before, so to go from not being ranked at all to 19th in the nation is amazing,” Seidner beamed. “I was just refreshing the NCAA website all weekend waiting for them to update it just crossing my fingers to be on it, but to be 19th is just amazing. It really reflects how hard we’ve worked this season and the countless hours we’ve put into getting here.”
“Being a freshman, the best part of being a part of a game like that was definitely seeing all the emotion that came along with playing a team that we knew would be tough and being able to beat them in the end,” freshman Gillian Sensindiver offered.
The exciting season continues at home for the Gettysburg women’s soccer team on Saturday, November 8 at 1 pm, where the Bullets will take on the winner of Muhlenburg College v. Swarthmore College in the Centennial Conference semi-final. Come out and support the team!
