Scoreless Draw Opens Season for Women’s Soccer

Thursday, August 18

Harrisonburg, Va.

7 p.m.

James Madison University

0-0-1, 0-0-0

VCU

0-0-1, 0-0-0

VCU

James Madison

8/18/2022 10:25:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score Photo Gallery

HARRISONBURG, Va. – James Madison women's soccer opened up the 2022 season with a scoreless draw against VCU at Sentara Park on Thursday night.

Both teams move to 0-0-1 in the new season, as the Dukes recorded a shutout in their season opening match for the first time since 2007.

Sophomore Amanda Attanasi led the JMU attack with four shots, putting two on goal. Redshirt sophomore Alexandra Blom earned her sixth career shutout, posting six saves.

How It Happened

The Rams outshot the Dukes 7-2 in the first half, taking the first six shots of the contest.
Milica Bulatovic came the closest to find the back of the net, taking a shot in the middle of the 18-foot box that just grazed the crossbar and sailed high.
Redshirt sophomore Lexi Vanderlinden took the first JMU shot in the 29^th minute, missing high.
Both offenses cooled in the second part of the half, as there was only a total of one shot and one corner kick in the last 15 minutes.
The Dukes stepped up the attack in the second half, taking the first three shots with shots from redshirt junior Suwaibatu Mohammed and Attanasi coming with 16 seconds of each other. Mohammed's shot just barely hit the post, while Attanasi's was saved.
VCU returned with back-to-back shots of their own, with the redshirt junior Brittany Munson saving the latter and keeping the match scoreless.
In a stretch from the 82^nd minute to the 87^th, the Dukes were able to get off four corner kicks and five shots, but all but one missed with the fifth shot being saved.
Blom made back-to-back saves in the 73^rd and 74^th minutes that kept the match at zeros.

Game Notes

After VCU outshot the Dukes 7-2 in the first half, the Dukes out shot VCU 11-5 in the second half.
JMU had an 11-4 advantage on corner kicks.
The scoreless draw is the first draw between the two programs since a 1-1 draw on Oct. 16, 2003. It is only the third draw of the all-time series and is the first draw in 15 matches.

Quoting Head Coach Joshua Walters, Sr.
"A slow start today, but we showed well in some stretches of the game which gives me some excitement for what we could be. We will continue to work hard and will push to finish some goals!"

Up Next
JMU hits the road for a four-match road trip. They begin by traveling to Morehead State on Sunday, Aug. 21 with a 1 p.m. kickoff. The match will be streamed on ESPN+.