Posted on September 10, 2007
JMU recovered from early-game jitters to defeat the Wyoming Cowgirls 3-1 Friday night and remain undefeated on the season. The Lady Dukes (4-0-0) handed Wyoming its first loss of the season (1-1-0) thanks in large part to a two-goal performance off the bench from freshman Teresa Rynier.
After 35 minutes of self-professed “lackadaisical” play, head coach Dave Lombardo’s team got a boost of confidence from senior Melanie Schaffer’s tie-breaking goal in the 36th minute.
Madison caught a break when Freshman Cate Tisnger’s cross found Schaffer running towards the net.
“[Tisinger] saw me coming across the box [and] had a good cross,” Schaffer said. “I didn’t think I was going to get there in time, but it got to me and I just ran through it. It was an ugly goal, but it works.”
A Wyoming defender’s attempt to clear the ball failed and the ball ricocheted off Schaffer and into the net.
The Lady Dukes never looked back from there.
“It gave us a leg up and room to work with,” Schaffer said. “It gave us confidence. We thought, ‘We can play with them, we can do this.’ We were lackadaisical before, but we just started kicking the ball around and played some good soccer [for the rest of the game.]”
Some of Madison’s early-game jitters can be credited to the fact that this contest was its first ever with Wyoming.
“When you meet a team for the first time there is an excitement about it, but a little bit of fear as well,” Lombardo said. “We played tight in the first half but loosened up in the second. We found our soccer brains and our soccer feet.”
In the second half it was all JMU. Rynier scored the Dukes’ second goal of the night in the 72nd minute, just seven minutes after coming off the bench for the second time in the contest. Tisinger recorded her second assist of the game and third of the season when her cross, found Rynier just inside the 18-yard box. Rynier hit the top left corner of the net, just out of reach of Wyoming’s goalie Ashley Sheppard.
Rynier found the back of the net again in the 75th minute, this time from 20 yards out on from senior Annie Lowry.
“I popped in the game [and] everybody else was tired,” said Rynier. "I had fresh legs.”
Madison has outscored its opposition 8-2 in four games this season and is enjoying its best opening to a season in 16 years, after starting 0-5 in 2006.
JMU now looks to go 5-0 with a win over Richmond on Sunday. Lombardo hopes the prospect of doing something no JMU team has done before will keep his squad focused for its game on Sunday, without looking ahead to nationally ranked Penn State next week.
“[I don’t think that] will be a problem,” said Lombardo. “Our kids are focused. Our mantra this whole season is to take everything one game at a time. We’re in the here and now, and I think well be focused for the Richmond game.”
As of Tuesday, JMU was ranked sixth out of 47 schools in the Middle-Atlantic region by Soccerbuzz Magazine and fifth in the region by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA). Madison was located just behind national powerhouses Virginia, Rutgers and Penn State, with whom JMU will experience its first real challenge of the season Friday in College Station.
JMU is well aware of its ranking.
“We have it posted in the locker room,” said Rynier. “We know we can play, but it does mean something to us because as we win games we are working our way up.”
Madison beat Richmond 1-0 Sunday in their second game of the JMU/Comfort Inn Invitational Tournament, improving their record to 5-0.
After travelling to Penn State September 14, Madison plays four straight games at home before they start play in October.
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