Sept. 16, 2005

Final Stats

KINGSTON, R.I. - Rhode Island women's soccer won, 8-2 over Vermont Friday in its first home game of the 2005 season. Melanie Kasparek picked-up her first hat trick of the season with three goals and one assist.

"I am very proud of Melanie's performance tonight," said head coach Zac Shaw. "She has worked really hard all season."

Sophomore Debra Nelson got the Rams on the board first just one minute and 28 seconds into the game. She kicked a line drive right over the tip of Vermont's goalies hands for her first goal of the season.

Vermont came back to tie it up 1-1, on an unassisted goal from Amy Cochran at the 16:24 mark.

Before the break, URI put three more goals on the board for the 4-1 lead. Melanie scored back-to-back goals before serving up an assist to twin sister Megan Kasparek for goal Ram goal number four.

Thorunn Jonsdottir found the back of the net on a free kick 18 yards out, for goal number five.

Melanie scored her third goal of the game with 11 minutes left in the game to give URI the 6-1 advantage.

Cassandra VanLeeuwen scored the second goal for the Catamounts with an assist from Lexie Kaknes.

"I was very impressed with Vermont's resilience," said Shaw. "They played tough the whole game."

Rhode Island's final two goals of the game were scored by freshman Rebecca Fish less than one-minute apart in the last two minutes of the match.

URI goalkeeper Ria Carroll picked-up her second win of the season with four saves. The Rams move to 2-4-0 on the season.

Rhode Island will continue home action as they take-on the Wildcats of New Hampshire on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. at the URI Soccer Complex.

"New Hampshire is a good team who has quality results all season," Shaw said. "We need to be ready to play 90 minutes of URI soccer against them."