Emmitsburg, MD – The UMBC women's soccer team controlled most of their contest at Mount St. Mary's, but the hosts scored a late goal to edge the Retrievers, 2-1, on Wednesday evening at Waldron Family Stadium.
 
Sophomore midfielder Misa Kasparcova scored her first collegiate goal for UMBC's lone tally of the night. Junior forward Izzy Binko took a game-high five shots and created several scoring opportunities to lead the Retriever attack. Junior goalkeeper Abbey Cowles made four saves.
 
UMBC (2-7) recorded 18 shots in the contest and held the Mountaineers to only 11 attempts. The Retrievers also took four corner kicks and did not allow the Mount to attempt any corners. The hosts committed 18 fouls compared to just five by the Retrievers.
 
The Mountaineers (2-4-2) opened the scoring in the 15' as forward Luisangley Navas converted a penalty kick after she was pulled down on the edge of the left side of the box by Kasparcova. Cowles made a diving attempt to her right, but Navas drilled a low shot to the center of the back of the net on the free opportunity.
 
The Retrievers responded by dominating the remainder of the half. Their first chance came with 21:20 left as Binko sent a cross from the left side into the box that nearly hit pay dirt. Senior forward Meghan McKye just missed getting her head on the pass and it deflected off a defender, forcing Mount keeper Arden Lembryk to make a diving save.
 
A minute later, Binko fired a shot on target that was punched in front of the net by Lembryk. Junior defender Lauren Reid, who was all alone on the right side of the box misfired on the rebound attempt as her shot sailed wide of the near post.
 
UMBC continued to apply tremendous pressure and were rewarded in the 30' after a Mount giveaway in their own end. Kasparkova intercepted a weak pass, advanced the ball a couple of yards, and fired a 30-yard winner just over the outstretched left arm of a leaping Lembryk and into the upper right-corner of the net.
 
The Retrievers nearly took the lead with just under three minutes left in the half as freshman forward Cheyenne Payne sent a nice cross directly in front of the center of the box for Abby Joseph, who was unable to get a foot on it.
 
Neither team created many quality chances in the second half until the later stages of the match. The Retrievers momentarily avoided disaster as Navas had a one-on-one with Cowles with 5:30 left but her shot from point-blank range was sent wide of the far post after Cowles had left her line.
 
The hosts, however, took advantage of their final opportunity just over a minute later as midfielder Annie Sorando beat Cowles with a header into the upper right quadrant in the 86'. Defender Emily Streett sent a perfect cross into the box from the right side and Sorando was all alone to accept the feed at the center of the box.

UMBC will open America East play against Bryant on Sunday afternoon at Retriever Soccer Park.