The UMBC women’s soccer team hosted Hartford in conference play on Sunday Oct. 8, losing 4-1. UMBC hosted the America East Spread Respect game, which has a goal of bringing people together for sports across all backgrounds. The Spread Respect initiative is a revamped “You Can Play” initiative, looking to have and maintain respect for all student-athletes.
Academic advisor for student-athletes, Jonathan Newby, said, “The goal of Spread Respect is to let people know that people of all backgrounds, whether race, gender, religion, etc. can come together and do great things.”
UMBC came into the game with a record of 2-7-3 overall and 0-3-0 in America East play, while the Hartford Hawks entered with a record of 6-6-2 overall and 2-1-1 in conference.
Sophomore biology major Rayven Conner cleared a ball long, created an error from a Hartford defender and caused a stretching save from the goalkeeper to keep the Hawks lead. Hartford came out firing after that, scoring first in minute 27, putting UMBC on the back foot.
The Retrievers went to the locker room down 1-0 to the preseason No. 1 team in the conference.
After halftime, the team went 4-0 down to Hartford before turning their game around and attacking with the ball. After shots went wide and hitting the crossbar, UMBC put a goal in from sophomore psychology major Jamie Shiflett. In minute 88, Shiflett headed the ball home from a cross by sophomore Emily Horn.
Junior visual arts major Leah Roth led the team from the goalkeeping position, keeping the defense in order and making two saves on the day. She now has 57 saves on the season and a goals allowed average of 1.50.
UMBC drops to 2-8-3 overall and 0-4-0 in conference play. They will be playing UMass Lowell and Stony Brook away from home on Oct. 12 and the Oct. 15 respectively. The Retrievers will return home on Thursday, Oct. 19 when they play the University of Vermont in the Think Pink Game, honoring breast cancer awareness month.