ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's soccer team was challenged early and often on Saturday night against a high caliber Rice squad that was coming off of a 10-4-6 campaign in 2025. After the Owls (1-1) went ahead on an Eileen Albers' goal in the 26th minute, the Mids (1-1) fought valiantly in front of their home fans at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility, but to no avail as the visitors salted away the win with two insurance goals in the second half to clinch the 3-0 decision.
Junior goalkeeper
Natasha Stramrood led Navy's individual highlights on Saturday night as she matched her career-high with eight saves over 90 minutes of action.
"We knew Rice is a very, very good team and that tonight was going to be a challenge," remarked head coach
Carin Gabarra. "They're very athletic, fast and direct; that's a great experience for us to play against and learn from, especially for all of our young players at this junction of the season. I felt that we got better in possession and were able to keep the ball at high pace.
"Our defending tonight was pretty solid, but we just had a few mental errors and Rice is a team that is going to capitalize on those and send numbers forward. They turned those errors into goals."
Stramrood was called upon early with a pair of saves within the first 12 minutes of play, including a point-blank denial of Valentina Labuschange deep inside the box. The junior continued her strong play in the first half with her third stop of the game just eight minutes later.
While Stramrood was back-stopping the Mids' defense and holding the Owls off the scoreboard, the host's offense struggled a bit of the gate as they only mustered two total shots in the opening 22 minutes, both of which were off-target.
Rice's pressure and Navy's inability to make significant in-roads in the attacking third eventually resulted in the Owls taking the lead at 25:43 with an Eileen Albers goal.
Down, but not out, the Mids recorded their first shot on goal of the contest in the 30th minute on an attempt from
Jessica Black. That 1-0 score would hold through the halftime intermission as neither side put a shot on target over the remaining 15 minutes of the stanza.
The pace and efficiency picked up significantly in the second half as the teams combined for four shots and two corner kick opportunities in the first eight minutes of the period. Trailing by one, Navy's best scoring look came in the 58th minute when
Ande Swan (Jr., Sugar Land, Texas) fed
Chiara Cosenza (Sr., Westfield, N.J.) up the field and Cosenza unleashed a low line drive of a shot that forced Rice's goalkeeper Kirsten Ruf to make the save to keep her squad's shutout effort in order.
On the opposite end of the pitch, Stramrood was up to the challenge and made saves number four and five in short order following Cosenza's shot.
With the scoreboard still showing Rice up 1-0 and the clock ticking under 20 minutes remaining, the Owls added insurance and punctuation scores within an 8:15 span as Camille Quarterman corralled a booming Ruf kick and sprinted in for a goal at 72:51 before Lauren Pickup locked up the win when she found the back of the net at 81:06.
For the game, Rice out-shot Navy 18-12 with an 11-4 advantage in shots on goal. The Owls also held a slight 7-5 advantage in corner kicks.
"We can definitely learn from tonight's game," said Gabarra in closing. "Rice threw numbers forward and had no issues sprinting down the field in transition, getting on the other end of balls and hitting balls longer earlier. Those are some of the ways that they played that we can learn from and get better. Our team can be very good this season. We're going to learn from tonight; in a few weeks we'll be much better because it."
Navy will close its season-opening three-game homestand on Thursday night with a matchup versus service academy rival Air Force at 7 p.m. at Glenn Warner Soccer Facility.
