ROCHESTER, NY – The Mansfield University defense fought off intense pressure from the Roberts Wesleyan University Women's Soccer team and despite a 26-2 shots advantage the game ended in a 1-1 tie Wednesday night at Roberts Stadium.
Mansfield (0-1-3) scored in the first two minutes of the contest with a long free kick that traveled nearly the length of the field and ended with a touch pas freshman goalkeeper Mya Tyndell as the Mountaineers took the early 1-0 lead.
The game remained 1-0 despite Roberts (2-2-1) holding a commanding 14-1 shots advantage over the first 45 minutes of action.
It was more of the same in the second half until junior Kara Choate scored to knot the game.
Fellow junior Alyssa Hackett controlled the ball in the middle of the box and drew two defenders before dishing off a perfect pass to Choate who buried a one-timer past the diving goalkeeper to draw the Redhawks even seven minutes into the second half.
Roberts nearly broke the tie with 11 minutes remaining as sophomore Adria Ariola fired a free kick toward the goal that ended up hitting the crossbar.
The Redhawks finished with a huge 26-2 shots advantage with an 8-2 edge in shots on goal and a 7-2 edge in corner kicks.
"Obviously not the result we hoped for today," said Head Coach Jeff Vieira. "We had opportunities but need to finish them. We know what we need to work on and we need to have a good training session this week as we get ready for conference play."
Roberts will open East Coast Conference (ECC) play Saturday with a 1 p.m. home game against Queens College at Roberts Stadium.
