The women's soccer team swept their opponents at the Colgate Nike Invitational last weekend, taking games from both Colgate and Cornell.
In their final game on Sunday, the Pirates shutout the Cornell Big Red 2-0, evening their season record to 3-3.
In the 2nd minute, freshman Kaitlyn Ritter scored an unassisted goal to give the Pirates the early 1-0 edge.
Ritter leads the squad in goals on the season with four, after scoring a goal in each of the Hall's last four games.
The score remained 1-0 until the 90th minute, when senior co-captain Katie Andreski took a cross from freshman Marie Klemme and beat Cornell's goalkeeper for her second goal of the season.
Redshirt junior Elizabeth Bond got the start in goal and earned a shutout, saving two shouts out of the seven total shots attempted by Cornell.
Seton Hall recorded 20 shots on the day, with 11 of them coming in the first half of play.
Senior co-captain Nicki Gross led the attack for the Pirates with six shots, with three of those shots on goal. Sophomore Xandra Hompe led Cornell with two shots.
"The [defensive] unit is getting more organized," Coach Tambi said. "The kids are getting to know each other more".
On Friday night, freshman Ashley Clarke scored the first two goals of her Seton Hall career in a 3-2 victory over Colgate.
In the first ever meeting between the two schools, Colgate sophomore Jillian Kinter took a pass from junior Maddie Malone in the 14th minute and headed it past sophomore goalkeeper Jennifer Pettigrew to give the Raiders the early 1-0 lead.
However, three seconds later, the Pirates responded when Ritter received a pass from freshman Amy Ruhe and buried it in the back of the net.
It was Ruhe's third assist of the season, tying her with Gross for the team lead.
During the 33rd minute, Clarke ripped a shot from the top of the box past Colgate goalkeeper Ashley Walsh, giving the Pirates a 2-1 lead.
The Raiders answered with the half winding down, Malone was fouled and awarded a penalty kick.
She took advantage and scored to tie the contest heading into the locker room at halftime.
In the second half, the score remained tied until the 87th minute when Clarke scored again to giving the Pirates a lead they would not relinquish en route to their second victory of the season by a score of 3-2.
"She had a tremendous game," Tambi said of Clarke.
The Hall won despite being outshot 20-13 in the game, and losing the corner kick battle 9-4.
Clarke led the way offensively with five shots, all of which goal, while Ritter had three shots.
Pettigrew made nine saves to improve her collegiate record to 5-13-1.
"These were two very big victories", Tambi said.
Tambi also applauded the ability of the team to be able to go through the strain of three games in six days.
The Pirates return home to Owen T. Carroll field for the start of a three game home stand on Sept. 17, taking on in-state rival Rutgers to start their Big East campaign.
David Rind can be reached at david.rind@student.shu.edu
