St. Mary's Defeats Vanderbilt in OT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. –Alex Ciliento’s goal at the 96:43 mark in overtime lifted Saint Mary’s to a 3-2 win over Vanderbilt in the final match of the Commodore Invitational Sunday afternoon at the VU Soccer Complex.

Ciliento’s goal, her third of the year, came as she broke away and shot over Vanderbilt keeper Rachel Bachtel to get the win for the Gaels.

SMC went 1-1 in the tournament to improve to 2-2-2 on the year, while the Commodores dropped their second straight to fall to 2-3-1.

“We are at the point where we need to win these games,” said Vanderbilt head coach Ronnie Coveleskie. “We were coming off a tough loss to Gonzaga on Friday night and we felt that coming out today that we needed to reestablish the winning ways at Vanderbilt. I thought we played very well. We made a couple of defense mistakes that caught us and Saint Mary’s capitalized on it. I am proud of the girls, but ulitimately the scoreboard says 3-2.”

Vanderbilt dominated the game statistically, holding a 30-10 shot advantage and a 10-0 corner kick lead. Sarah Dennis had six shots to lead VU, while Lindsay Ratterman, Katie Schulz, Mary Rachel Reynolds, and Amy Wilcox each had two shots on goal in the attack.

Gael goalkeeper Tara Larson recorded 11 saves in the game, while Bachtel had three saves for the Commodores.

Saint Mary’s jumped on the board three minutes into the game when Allie Weiner scored her team leading fourth goal of the year when she took her own deflected shot and scored into the left side of the net.

The Commodores came back at the 12:01 mark to tie the game when Lindsay Ratterman took a feed from Sarah Dennis and blasted it in from 15 yards out past the keeper.

The Gaels stormed right back, scoring 42 seconds later when Mercede Koning shot from the left side into the right side of the net off an assist from Jessica Menzhuber to make it 2-1.

Vanderbilt tied the game up at the 59:14 mark in the second half when Meredith Kohn took a corner kick from Dennis and scored in front of the goal to tie it up.

Vanderbilt will be back in action next weekend at the College of Charleston Tournament in Charleston, S.C. The Commodores will open with Davidson next Friday at 4 p.m., before taking on host College of Charleston next Sunday at 1:30 p.m. to close out the non-conference slate.