Huge conference wins make Profs control their own destiny

It was packed house for the Rowan University women’s soccer team’s home opener. After playing their first six games on the road, they opened up a four-game home stand hosting their undefeated New Jersey Athletic Conference rival, The College of New Jersey.

Rowan showed the rest of the NJAC why they are reigning champions by smoking the Lions 4-0.

“Obviously this is an important win and it [was] our first home game,” said coach Scott Leacott. “It was pretty lively tonight and we came to play.”

Rowan was dominant the whole game. They were far more physical than TCNJ and were able to out-play them. The scoring came from junior forward Jessica Babice, who had a hat trick, and junior midfielder Holly Bundy.

This was no ordinary match for Rowan. TCNJ is one of Rowan’s top challengers for the Conference Championship and they needed this win to set the tone for the conference standings. Having this edge on TCNJ will help them at the season’s end.

“We always get pumped up for [the TCNJ game] and it feels good to beat them,” Babice said. “They’re a great team but there are many other teams out there.”

The crowd was certainly into the game, chanting “Rowan” after every goal. One student even brought a megaphone to get the crowd going.

A big question going in was how healthy senior goalkeeper Sarah Volkomer would be for the game. She had missed Rowan’s previous four games with a shoulder injury that she sustained in the Stockton tournament.

Volkomer came out ready to play as she made three saves and showed no signs of injury by playing the ball in traffic and getting physical in the box.

“I think I did a lot better than I expected since I didn’t train that much for two weeks,” Volkomer said.“This was the game I was shooting for, being injured the past two weeks. I knew that I definitely wanted to come back versus TCNJ.”

Filling in for Volkomer the past couple of weeks was sophomore Jillian Brannan. Brannan played well, going 2-1-1 in a tough stretch against teams that were in the NCAA tournament last year, including conference-rival Montclair State University.

“Jill played excellent, absolutely excellent,” Volkomer said. “She definitely held it together for us the past few games we had.”

Seeing Brannan fill in for Volkomer and come up with some really big saves gave Rowan a good idea of who will be in the net for the next two years after Volkomer graduates at the end of the season.

Rowan followed up their win versus TCNJ with another shutout versus William Paterson. Babice and Veronica Rhea scored a pair of goals in the second half for a 2-0 win.

“We came out really slow in the first half but the second half we picked it up and we wanted to win,” Rhea said.