Annandale-on-Hudson, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz women's soccer team got out to a great start when it visited Bard College Wednesday night, earning a 3-0 victory.
 
"Overall, I felt like we established a super high tempo off the ball and on the ball with and without pressure, and I felt like they sustained that throughout 90 minutes," said SUNY New Paltz coach Mike Eckberg. "I felt like our backline was very savvy in dictating play. I thought that our midfield did a really great job of finding moments to link up with our forwards to make really great runs in from behind and I thought our front line was stellar all 90 minutes. I felt like they were creative with their runs. I felt like they were taking advantage of half chances. I think they had an excellent attacking mentality. I felt like we were dialed in on set pieces. So, for a 90-minute game, all around I was really pleased really front to back the performance from each line."
 
The Hawks were coming off a disappointing 3-1 home loss against Skidmore and looked to bounce back in a big way against the Raptors who also lost their last match, 1-0 at Sarah Lawrence College.
 
SUNY New Paltz (3-1-1 overall) got out to a 1-0 lead on Bard (1-3-1 overall) after a Siena Diaz-Colon goal came in the 17th minute of the first half. The Hawks went on to score again to go up 2-0 after a strategic pass from Maggie Cameron gave Paris Burke her first goal of the season in the 31st minute. The Hawks were aggressive in the first half holding the Raptors to zero shots to their 10 with six coming on goal. Their defense and midfielders were very good at rallying to the ball and forcing an errant pass or turnover, especially when the ball got deep in their half.
  The second half scoring opened up with an amazing goal from Rachel Eisert that zipped past Raptor goalkeeper Sam Finn to the top left of the net. Assisting on the goal was Alexis DeLeo who finished with one assist and registered four shots with three on-goal.
 
SUNY New Paltz sustained possession for most of the half with its defense doing a good job limiting opportunities for Bard. Kyra Russo saved two shots the Raptors had on target in the half.
 
Offensively, the Hawks had multiple looks at goal to total 21 shots on the night, which was close to evenly split between halves, 10-11, respectively. SUNY New Paltz had 10 different players take a shot and 12 of the 21 were on-goal (57%)
 
Diaz-Colon finished with one goal on two shots which were both on target. Burke had a solid effort finishing with a score and tallied four shots with three on frame. Cameron, meanwhile, added one assist
 
Defense was stifling yet again as they secured their fourth shutout and third shutout win this season. The Hawks look forward after a great outing to an away match against Potsdam (3-3 overall) on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. to begin SUNYAC action.

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