July 29, 2001

Springfield and Long Island square off in the rubber match of their season series

A record crowd of 2,516 at WNEC witnessed an high-paced, emotional battle between two of the top teams in the W-1 League, as Springfield and Long Island squared off. With the Lady Riders coming with a tactically-sound defensive scheme against the run-and-gun Sirens, it appeared it would be a long night for Springfield.

A critical back save off a shot by Rachel LeDuc (Longmeadow, MA) in the 31st minute evolved nine minutes later into the eventual gamewinner for Long Island. Jen Carlson struck a free kick from 25 yards out on the right flank that swerved past goalkeeper Julie Podhrasky (Dallas, TX) in the 40th minute for the 1-0 win. The Sirens pressured the Long Island goal mouth late in the match but shot after shot were blocked and cleared.

With the loss, Springfield's record drops to 8-2-3 (W-T-L) and back into fourth place in the Northern Conference in the W-1 League. The Sirens last regular season game before the postseason will be against Rochester this Saturday, August 4th at 7:30 pm at WNEC.