The women’s soccer team beat Grove City College 1-0 on Tuesday, bringing home the first win of the season and making the record 1-5.

Assistant Coach Pam Monnier said the women worked harder than they have been and created an attack.

“We competed at a higher level,” said Sarah Donohue, ’18. “This weekend we struggled with playing with higher energy, but we did on Tuesday. Our biggest challenge was scoring but we finally got our first goal of the season, which was something we needed.”

Niki Augustine, ’16, made the first goal of the season in the first half against Grove City.

“Being 0-5, as coaches, we were concerned about confidence level and trying to fix things a little at a time. It was a huge overcome for the team and last night they put things together better than previous five games,” Head Coach Michael Weber said.

Brianna Layman, ’16, said the team looking ahead at future games and each weekend is a building block in their progress to the next game.

“This week has been the first time we truly played as an original team,” Layman said. “Our motto is to practice as hard as we would play. We can be mad or we can keep going and choose to make a difference.”

Donohue said winning a game brings confidence going into the game this weekend.

This season the women’s soccer team has a lower number of athletes than previous years but they are working to play as the team they are now.

“A huge challenge this season is numbers and staying healthy. A few of us had surgery recently, so we have implemented recovery into practices days after games,” Layman said “We are also a young team, we graduated four starters and only have two incoming.”

The women are pushing through the challenges with the goal of achieving all they can this year.

“Past seasons mean nothing, we have to focus on ourselves, this team, this year, and create our own successes,” Weber said.

Monnier echoed Weber, saying the team is focused on putting all the pieces together and found a sense of that and trusting each other in Tuesday’s game.

“It’s tough having five losses in a row but we had a taste of success. We have to move on from the past but build on what we did well then do better,” Monnier said.

Donohue said she is looking forward to seeing what the team can achieve this season as they improve through each game.

“Our biggest goal is to be preseason seeded number one in the NCAC and get a bid into the NCAA tournament,” Layman said. “After that our next goal is to make it past the next round of tournament play.”

The women will take on State University of New York  Oneonta on Saturday, Sept. 19.