[Hieronymus]

Not as big as the men’s game, but the women beat St. Mary’s 4:1 in the early game Sunday. Nobody returned from injury; so the same starting lineup as the SDST game except the backs and forwards swapped sides. The forwards do that a lot in game, but the backs rarely do so.

Overall, it was a really good first half though things petered out a bit when the subs started to come on. 

In the second, the starters came out massively flat and St. Mary’s cut the lead 2-1 about 6 minutes in. Things got back under control quickly after the goal, and we had the clearest case yet of Montoya flat out running past a defender. 

The big open question right now is defense. It’s mostly untested, but there are some concerning signs:
1.  It’s looked a bit shaky at times. In this game Evans and Boamah simply had players get behind them on the St, Mary’s goal
2. The defenders - mostly Evans honestly - are turning it over too much in bad spots.
3. This attacking CB thing is dangerous. Once in awhile at a carefully chosen moment can be OK, but it’s happening much too frequently. Freer even picked up the disease in the first half, but very noticeably didn’t in the second half. Almost comically so. I suspect the staff had a talk about not doing that anymore.

Arizona is next and then on to LA.

[Hieronymus]

Not as big as the men’s game, but the women beat St. Mary’s 4:1 in the early game Sunday. Nobody returned from injury; so the same starting lineup as the SDST game except the backs and forwards swapped sides. The forwards do that a lot in game, but the backs rarely do so.

Overall, it was a really good first half though things petered out a bit when the subs started to come on. 

In the second, the starters came out massively flat and St. Mary’s cut the lead 2-1 about 6 minutes in. Things got back under control quickly after the goal, and we had the clearest case yet of Montoya flat out running past a defender. 

The big open question right now is defense. It’s mostly untested, but there are some concerning signs:
1.  It’s looked a bit shaky at times. In this game Evans and Boamah simply had players get behind them on the St, Mary’s goal
2. The defenders - mostly Evans honestly - are turning it over too much in bad spots.
3. This attacking CB thing is dangerous. Once in awhile at a carefully chosen moment can be OK, but it’s happening much too frequently. Freer even picked up the disease in the first half, but very noticeably didn’t in the second half. Almost comically so. I suspect the staff had a talk about not doing that anymore.

Arizona is next and then on to LA.