LEXINGTON, Va. – The Navy women's soccer team ran its winning streak to five games in a row as it controlled the action on Sunday with a 3-0 victory over VMI. Concluding a two-game road trip to Virginia, the Mids (6-2-1) overcame slow, damp conditions at the Keydets' (0-6-1) Patchin Field to rattle off three second-half goals and turn a scoreless contest through 67 minutes into a three-goal triumph.
Kayana Adlam (Jr., Orlando, Fla.) kick-started Navy's scoring with a penalty kick conversion in the 68th minute before
Helen Bonner (So., McLean, Va.) had an immediate follow-up strike 60 seconds late as she blasted a failed clear into the back of the net.
Hannah Mulholland (Sr., Chandler, Ariz.) completed the Mids' second-half scoring barrage with her first score of 2026 coming in the 82nd minute.
Freshman goalkeeper
Shea Best (Gibsonia, Pa.) back-stopped Navy's defense to its second consecutive clean sheet as she denied VMI's lone shot on goal in the 85th minute.
"I thought we had a really gritty, invested performance today," remarked head coach
Carin Gabarra. "It's hard to be on the road for five days and play two teams that are very fired up to play you. The conditions were a little tough today with a damp field that's a bit narrower than we're used to so being able to get goals on the road and fight through adversity was a really big deal for us today.
"We continue to play a lot of players who are stepping up and doing some big things in big moments. I'm really proud of the fact that opponents are throwing different things at us and we're finding ways to solve it and finding ways to score goals. We'll take this win and continue to grow."
Dealing with slow, wet field conditions following a morning of rain in central Virginia both teams struggled to make many successful in-roads offensively in the first half with just nine combined shots and only three attempts making their way on frame. Navy recorded all three of those shots as
Chiara Cosenza (Sr., Westfield, N.J.) tested VMI's goalkeeper Maren Ryberg early with a shot on goal in the fifth minute of play.
Faith Graziano (So., Middlebury, Conn.) and
Ali Barrow (Sr., Alexandria, Va.) registered the other two shots on goal in the opening stanza; both were denied by Ryberg.
Coming out of the locker room stuck in a 0-0 stalemate, Navy picked up its offense potency and started immediately hunting for the go-ahead score as Adlam took a shot just 43 seconds into the second half. The explosive junior midfielder continued peppering VMI's goal as she took three more shots, all of which finished on frame and forced Ryberg into action. Unfortunately for the visitors, their search for a goal carried on.
That changed in the 68th minute when Graziano had her lengthy shot bounce off the crossbar and into the open space of the 18-yard box. With the loose ball up for grabs, Adlam sprinted towards it, but was physically tackled by a VMI defender drawing a yellow card and penalty kick opportunity. Adlam stepped to the penalty spot for her shot and calmly deposited the ball into the lower corner of the net past Ryberg.
With the score 1-0 in favor of the Mids, the visitors added an insurance goal just 60 seconds later when Bonner picked up a failed clearance off the foot of a Keydet defender and ripped a shot into the far upper-90 from 25 yards out.
Navy sealed its 3-0 victory at 81:52 when
Jessica Black (So., Cedaredge, Colo.) laid off a pass back to an on-coming Mulholland, who didn't miss her chance and smashed a shot into the crossbar, but the ball deflected down across the goal line.
Best completed her first career solo shutout with a save on Isabella Franco in the 85th minute.
For the game, Navy out-shot VMI, 21-7 with a 12-1 advantage in shots on goal. Both teams recorded corner kicks on Sunday.
Next up for the Mids is the continuation of its five-game road trip with contests at Towson on Thursday night and Youngstown State on Sunday afternoon. Kickoff at Towson is set for 6Â p.m.
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