ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's soccer team opened its 2026 season with an emphatic 4-0 victory over Robert Morris on Wednesday. Playing in front a large energetic crowd at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility, the Mids (1-0) started out fast with a
Jessica Black (So., Cedaredge, Colo.) penalty kick in the first half before adding three insurance goals in the second period to clinch the win over the Colonials (0-1).
Finding the back of the net in the second half were
Kayana Adlam (Jr., Orlando, Fla.),
Lizzie Emerson (Jr., Houston, Texas) and senior team captain
ClaraJane Williams (Madison, Ga.)
"We had a great start to the season tonight," remarked head coach
Carin Gabarra. "It's always important to get your first win at home and to come out scoring goals. Scoring four times is something that we'll always be proud of. Its hard to score goals in soccer. We've never really relied on one player to do all the work for us on offense; we value teamwork and seeing new players step up in new moments.
" I'm also proud that we were able to preserve the shutout. Our defenders played very tight and very well tonight. We were able to get a lot of people minutes and experience. This was the first time this year that we've played someone other than ourselves so the level of competition was heightened. We now have film that we can review and start to identify areas that we can improve on. We need to do a little better job creating chances in the flow of the game."
Playing their first contests of the 2026 season, both teams used the first 15 minutes on Wednesday to feel each other out and work to build momentum. As such, there were just two combined shots over that span, one each for each squad; both were off target.
The dynamic of the game changed in the 18th minute when
Chiara Cosenza (Sr., Westfield, N.J.) drew a foul in the box as she was aggressively defended by Robert Morris' goalkeeper Emma Cameron on a seemingly innocuous ball that was set to go out of bounds. Black stepped up for the Mids in this penalty kick situation and calmly deposited her shot low past the goalkeeper at 17:44.
The scoreboard held at 1-0 as the teams retired to the locker room at halftime before an invigorated Navy squad turned up the heat in the second half. Similar to the Mids' earlier score, a foul deep attacking third set up goal number two as Adlam lofted a curling right-footed shot into the far upper-90 at 55:08 from 20 yards out.
Less than two minutes later a wild tackle out of the box by Cameron, the Colonials' last defender, earned the goalkeeper a straight red card and allowed the Mids' dangerous set piece unit to go to work.
Helen Bonner (So., McLean, Va.) tested the newly-inserted goalkeeper Kally Prescott with a hard strike from 25 yards out that ricocheted back into play and right in front of a hard-charging Emerson, who slammed home the rebound at 56:57.
Navy's fourth and final goal came with just 20 seconds left in regulation as Cosenza lobbed a high, dangerous corner kick into the box where Williams out-leapt her defender and headed home the first goal of her career.
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For the game, Navy out-shot Robert Morris, 14-3 with a 7-1 advantage in shots on goal. The Mids also held a slight 3-2 edge in corner kicks.
In goal, the pairing of
Natasha Stramrood (Jr., Cypress, Texas) and
Shea Best (Fr., Gibsonia, Pa.) combined for the clean sheet. Stramrood made the duo's lone stop with a kick save of a Madison Sievering shot in the 53rd minute.
Navy will continue early season action on Saturday night with a home matchup versus Rice. Kickoff against the Owls is set for 7 p.m. at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility.
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