Rhode Island Starters: Brennan (GK), Wakeford, Kahele-Manners, Reynolds, Mencos, Ross, Lieberman, Goncalves, Gylfadottir, Cabral, Nardella

Vermont Starters: Speckmaier (GK), Salvi, Monaghan, Snyder, Martin, Bankert, Jenkins, Yurick, Eiriksdottir, Garfinkel, Cammeyer

How It Happened
Senior Taylor Ross recorded a hat trick and junior Madison Waldron added a goal of her own as Rhode Island (1-1) beat Vermont 4-2 Sunday afternoon. The victory gave first-year head coach Megan Jessee her first career victory.

Vermont (1-1) had the first strong chance of the day when Brooke Jennings got behind the defense for a breakaway. Jennings fired a low shot to the right of Rhody keeper Haley Brennan, but put the ball wide.

From there, Rhode Island controlled play for the remainder of the half. The Rams pressured the Vermont defense when Allyson Reynolds got a shot off from inside the box in the 16th minute. Vermont keeper Coco Speckmaier knocked the ball wide. Two minutes later, Ross got off a header that went just over the crossbar.

The Rams finally broke through in the 20th minute when junior Madison Waldron launched a shot from 40 yards out over the keeper's head. Waldron had entered the game just 45 seconds earlier. Rhody added to the lead in the 42nd minute when Ross headed a corner from Jennifer Mencos.

Vermont made it a game in the second half, scoring a pair of goals just 1:23 apart. Jenkins put back a rebound on a shot by Savana Yurick to get the Catamounts on the board in the 62nd minute. Yurick scored unassisted in the 64th minute to make it a one-goal game.

Rhode Island put the game away when Ross scored on a penalty kick in the 81st minute to give the Rams a two-goal cushion. 

Scoring Summary
19:44 - URI – Madison Waldron (unassisted)
41:41 – URI – Taylor Ross (Jennifer Mencos)
47:59 – URI – Taylor Ross (Allyson Reynolds)
61:32 – VER – Brooke Jenkins (Savana Yurick)
63:01 – VER – Savana Yurick (unassisted)
80:06 – URI – Taylor Ross (penalty kick)

Inside the Box Score

• Senior Taylor Ross recorded her first career hat trick. She scored twice on headers and once on a penalty kick. She is Rhode Island's active leader with 10 career goals. 
• This was the second multi-goal game for Ross. She scored twice against Maine on Sept. 11, 2016.
• Junior Madison Waldron's goal was the fifth of her career. She scored twice in both her freshman and sophomore seasons.
• Redshirt sophomore Haley Brennan earned her first career win, making five saves. 
• Rhode Island did not allow a corner kick in the opening half. This after giving up eight corners in the season opener Friday. Vermont managed four corners in the second half.
• Rhode Island scored four goals just once in 19 games last season.
• Freshman Brooke Osmanski made her Ram debut in the victory. 
• Rhode Island head coach Megan Jessee and Vermont head coach Kristi Lefebvre were teammates for four seasons at UConn (2002-05), winning three regular-season Big East titles and a pair of tournament titles together. 

Up Next

Rhode Island hosts Central Connecticut on Thursday, Aug. 24 at the URI Soccer Complex.  Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.