by Brian Hoffman
The Old Dominion Athletic Conference women’s soccer tournament is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, November 1, with games at the sites of the top four seeds. This week will decide when and where the Roanoke College team will play.
Coming into this week the Maroons were in a dead heat for sixth place with Shenandoah and Guilford with 4-4 records. Averett wasn’t far behind in ninth place at 3-4-1 so one of those four teams will not finish in the top eight and qualify for the tournament.
There’s a big separation between the top five teams and the next four. Coming into the week Washington & Lee led the conference with a 7-0-1 ODAC mark followed by Bridgewater at 7-1. Virginia Wesleyan, Randolph-Macon and Lynchburg were all tied for third at 6-1-1.
The Maroons had two ODAC games remaining, including a Wednesday game with winless Hollins. On Saturday they have a big game with Virginia Wesleyan in Virginia Beach.
The Maroons improved to 8-8 overall when they took a 2-0 win over Shenandoah in Salem last Sunday in a game that was originally postponed due to Hurricane Ian. It didn’t take too long for Eliza Ryan to find Cameron Shackford in the box, who fired a shot passed Karissa Dominick at 11:00, putting the Maroons up 1-0 with 79 minutes left to play.
Despite both teams playing a back-and-forth downfield game for the remainder of the half, neither team was able to find the back of the net as Roanoke led 1-0 at the break. A long pass from Shackford found Morgan O’Neill streaking up the right side, who fired a goal in the 82nd minute to put the Maroons out of the reach of the Hornets, 2-0.
Carrington Lippi picked up her fourth ODAC win of the season in goal and third conference shutout with the win. She played all 90 minutes, making two saves.
O’Neill added one point to her team-leading 22 this season while Shackford is third on the team with four goals and 11 points. Ryan added one more assist to her team-leading five this season.