RICHMOND, Va. – The UMBC women’s soccer team and its defense held strong, including a pair of critical saves from senior goalkeeper Lauren Kadet (Oakville, Ontario/St. Thomas Aquinas) in the first of two overtimes to help the Retrievers to a scoreless tie against VCU in their non-conference season finale at Sports Backers Stadium on Friday night. Kadet finished the night with six saves. The contest marked the Ram’s Massey Cancer Center Blue Out in support of cancer awareness month.

The Retrievers keep the all-time series between the two schools all tied up and move to 1-6-2 on the year, while VCU remains unbeaten at home in their last 10 matches and move to 3-2-3 on the year.

UMBC’s defense was rock solid in the first half, limiting the Rams to three shots. The Retrievers nearly jumped on the board at the 13:45 mark of the opening stanza as a corner kick from senior forward Rachel McKee (Ellicott City, Md./Mount Hebron) connected with the head of freshman back Amira Walcott (Beltsville, Md./Eleanor Rossevelt), but Rams senior goalkeeper Kristin Carden was there to make the save and keep the game scoreless with 13:45 remaining in the opening stanza. Moments later, VCU retaliated back down the other end with an opportunity to break the tie as well as Brianne Moore gathered a loose ball and drilled a shot off the crossbar.

UMBC’s backline continued to stay strong, keeping VCU scoreless throughout the second half, despite 10 shots in the second 45 minutes of action.

The Rams continued to pull the trigger in the first overtime, filing off three shots within a 1:19 span, however, Kadet was there to punch a shot from Wendy Acosta over the cross bar and knocked down another from Cristin Granados to keep the teams deadlocked.  

UMBC takes a week off before beginning America East action on Sunday, Sept. 23 at the University of New Hampshire.