Despite drawing the match even early in the first half, the Northern Virginia Majestics were unable to contain the pesky Freedom Futures attack and fell 4-1 to Washington Saturday night at Hellwig Memorial Park. Two goals by Futures forward Omolyn Davis led the visitors to victory over the home side Majestics.

 

Washington wasted little time getting on the scoreboard, as Davis made her first mark of the evening in the 11th minute. The George Mason University product found herself at the receiving end of a failed clearance, and buried the ball home to give Washington the early 1-0 lead.

 

The Northern Virginia offense sensed the urgency and seemingly sprang to life shortly after the goal. The offensive pressure soon yielded a corner kick for the home side, and Majestics midfielder Kimmy Moss drove a hard, low cross from the ensuing free kick. As she has throughout the season, Northern Virginia forward Ashley Johnson found a way to score, deftly touching a glancing header into the side netting of the Washington goal for the equalizer in the 16th minute.

United Soccer Leagues announced today the W-League Team of the Week to start the final weekend of the USL regular season, honoring the top players for their performance in the prior seven days of play. Northern Virginia Majestic goalkeeper Alyssa (Aly) Pont was named to the eleven-member team for her outstanding play in leading the Majestics defense to a 1-0 shutout victory over the Tampa Bay Hellenic.

           

Pont, who also serves as the goalkeeper at Princeton University, made nine saves in nabbing the clean sheet win over visiting Tampa Bay last Sunday. The athletic Northern Virginia keeper came up big several times, including a sprawling one-on-one save, to deny a desperate Hellenic offense throughout much of the match. The shutout eliminated Tampa Bay from post season play and earned the Majestics their second win of the season.

 

In addition to Pont, there was plenty of other great defense played last week across the W-League. Myriam Bouchard of the Quebec City Amiral was named Player of the Week, for anchoring the Amiral defense and scored the game-winning goal against Toronto. Pascale Pinard was solid in back for Laval, leading her defense to clean sheet against Ottawa.

 

A searing afternoon sun and a desperate opponent did everything they could to wear down the Northern Virginia Majestics on Sunday afternoon.

 

But Colleen Deegan and her teammates refused to give in.

 

They’d played too hard and too well to settle for anything less than a 1-0 victory against the Tampa Bay Hellenic.

 

“I could tell they were getting really frustrated,” Deegan said. “It’s a great feeling that we held on.”

 

With coach Jac Cicala imploring his players to “dig deep” against a relentless 93-degree heat, the Majestics accomplished two important things with their second shutout of the season: They avenged a 5-0 season-opening defeat in Florida and officially eliminated Tampa Bay from the W-League playoff race.

 

“We’ve had some results that we weren’t too happy with, but we never lost to a team really badly twice in a row,” Deegan said. “So to come back and play the way we did today is something to really be proud of.”