Women's Soccer Salvages Tie vs. NEC

NEW LONDON, Conn. – The Mitchell College women's soccer team salvaged a 1-1 draw against New England College on Saturday afternoon in a New England Collegiate Conference showdown. 

After a scoreless first half, the teams swapped goals in the final 45 minutes of regulation before playing to a stalemate in both overtime periods. Delaney Dupuis scored the game's first goal to put NEC on top, but the lead was short lived as Mitchell's Madison Nicynski responded just over six minutes later. 

Goalkeeper Angelina Munoz kept Mitchell in the game by making a season-high 16 saves. The tie was good result for the Mariners, who played short-handed for over 100 minutes due to an early red card. 

The Pilgrims got on the scoreboard in the 51^st minute, with Lauren Hobson shaking off a defender at the top of the 18-yard box to get things started. Once free, she slotted a pass along the top of the box to Dupuis, whose first touch put the ball in the box on the right side. Dupuis then beat her defender to the ball and tucked a shot inside the right post from 10 yards out for her first goal of the season.

The Mariners answered back in the 57^th minute when a handball resulted in a free kick from nearly 30 yards out on the left wing. Nicynski drilled a low line drive into the box that just missed the heads of several players, and the shot carried past the dive of goalie Emily Sashko and into the side netting. The goal was her career-high third of the season.   

The Pilgrims (5-9-1 overall, 1-1-1 NECC) hunted for the go-ahead tally in the final 30 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of extra time, but Munoz denied them at every turn. She recorded 12 of her 16 stops to keep the score knotted at 1-1.

Mitchell (4-8-2 overall, 0-1-1 NECC) will wrap up the regular season against Eastern Nazarene College on Wednesday, October 27 at 3:30 p.m.