In a season marred by the injury bug, the women's soccer team has found it necessary to overcome demanding situations at various points during the course of the year.

Last Wednesday on Gordon Field, the team could not work their magic and overcome a trying situation as they fell to Castleton State College 3-2 on penalty kicks in the quarterfinals of the Eastern College Athletic Conference Tournament.

Even in the loss, coach Denise Dallamora was proud of the way her team fought through a closely contested game.

"I thought we played very well up until the last eight minutes [of regulation]," she said. "This is probably the first game where we've came back. I think we're kind of young but we came together as a team."

On a bitter cold night, neither the second-seeded Judges nor the seventh-seeded Spartans could muster many offensive chances, as Castleton State was held to five shots on goal in the first half while the Judges could only fire 12 shots of their own.

In the absence of forward Dara Spital '15, whose year was cut short by injury, forward Sapir Edalati '15 stepped up to the task of replacing Spital in a big way.

Edalati ended a three-game goalless streak with a strike in the 36th minute that staked the Judges to a 1-0 lead.

Midfielder Melissa Darling '16-who had entered for injured forward Cidney Moscovtich '17-crossed the ball to forward Michaela Friedman '17 to set up the scoring play. Friedman sent the ball along the goal line past Castleton State freshman goalkeeper Jessica Binkowski where Edalati needed to just tap the ball into a wide-open net.

As the game crawled forward, it appeared that Edalati's goal would prove to be the difference. The Judges controlled play for most of the second half, and found themselves with a number of scoring chances.

In the 52nd minute, Edalati was sent on goal with a beautiful through ball and ended up in a one-on-one with Binkowski. It was Binkowski who rose to the task and saved Edalati's breakaway attempt to keep the game tied at one.

Just two minutes before that, Binkowski stood tall to save a hard shot by forward Holly Szafran '16 that could have doubled the Judges' lead.

Dallamora stressed the importance of the Judges' inability to score a second goal.

"We missed a few breakaways," she explained. "We needed those cushions but we didn't get them."

Brandeis looked to run out the clock but could not do so as a chaotic final five minutes ensued with three goals and a 2-2 tie at the end of regulation.

After Castleton State tied the game in the 86th minute on a ball that was misplayed by goalie Michelle Savuto '15, the Judges responded with what they thought was a late-game winner.

Szafran took a pass from Darling with just over two minutes remaining in the contest just inside the 18-yard box and slammed it home, but Castleton State responded with just 25.6 seconds remaining to tie the game at two goals.

Even though the Judges outshot the Spartans 7-0 in the two overtime periods and won three corner kicks and two free kicks, Brandeis could not find the winner at any point over the two 10-minute extra sessions.

The two teams moved to penalty kicks to decide the quarte rfinal, and Castleton State capitalized on a pair of Brandeis misses.

The Judges converted their first penalty kick but pushed the second attempt wide of the net. Savuto stood her ground and saved the Spartans' second attempt, but could not be the hero as she missed the Judges fifth and final penalty kick.

Savuto's shot bounced off of the top of the crossbar and over the net to seal the upset for the Spartans.

Even in the tough loss, Dallamora took pride in the way her young team responded to the difficult situations.

"I'm happy that a lot of the kids stepped up," Dallamora explained. "There's a really good freshman class and they're going to step up [in the future]."
Brandeis ends their season at 1
0-6-3 overall, but can look forward to a revamped and healthy squad come next fall.
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