The Kenyon women’s soccer team triumphed in its final match of the season on Saturday, defeating the Oberlin College Yeowomen 4-2. With this win, the team’s record comes out to 7-5-5 (2-4-1 NCAC) for the 2023 season. 

The game was a constant back-and-forth, but Kenyon’s offensive momentum in the second half propelled the Owls to victory. The Owls opened the scoring when Sadie Gould ’24 headed a corner from Hailey Moss ’25 into the back of the net in the 14th minute. Gould’s fourth goal of the season gave the Owls an early 1-0 lead. A little over 10 minutes later, Oberlin scored an equalizer after the rebound from goalkeeper Ariel Kite ’27’s initial save was tapped in by the Yeowomen. 

The Owls were undeterred by the score and, less than a minute after Oberlin equalized, Morgan Baker ’25 restored Kenyon’s lead. Baker stole the ball from an Oberlin defender high up the field and hammered a shot past the keeper, marking her team-leading seventh goal of the season and giving Kenyon the lead at halftime. 

Oberlin struck first in the second half, sending a shot past the Owls’ defense in the 57th minute of the game, making it 2-2. With the Owls under pressure to score, Truly Martin ’26 came up big. With only 20 minutes to go, Martin received a pass about 15 yards past midfield from Alex Sokolik ’24 and sent a shot rocketing over the Yeowomen’s keeper, scoring her first career goal. With the Owls now up 3-2, the momentum was on their side and Eun Hae Lillig ’25 netted one more for the Owls in the 79th minute off of a long pass from Moss to cap off the 2023 season. In total, Kenyon outshot Oberlin 17-8 and also had seven shots on goal to the Yeowomen’s five.

In an email to the Collegian, Gould reflected on the team’s positive end to the season. “I think the team was happy with the overall performance this weekend. It was great to finish the season on a win.”

Despite missing the NCAC tournament this year, the team has much to look forward to next year. Kenyon graduates eight seniors this year, but will retain four of its six top scorers for next season. Looking back on the season as a whole, Gould emphasized the team’s collective effort: “I really enjoyed this season. Even though we might not have gotten the result we wanted in conference, I think the team was playing well together and every game was hard fought.”