Women's soccer falls at URI, 2-1, Thurs.

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Despite senior Katy Biagi's (Natick, Mass.) second marker of the year, the Bryant University women's soccer team fell to URI, 2-1, Thursday night in Kingston, R.I.

With the win, the Rams (3-0-1) remain unbeaten in the young 2014 regular season thanks to goals from Donika Murray and Samantha Leyh, while the Bulldogs (1-4) drop their third-straight match.

"Despite the result, this is the best we've played this season from start to finish," said Bryant head coach Chris Flint. "We gave up the goal late in the first half, but we battled back to equalize, and the game-winning goal was just a very strong finish."

It appeared as though the two familiar foes would head into the locker room gridlocked in a scoreless tie, however a relentless Rhody attack converted in the 43rd minute when Chelsea Gates found a leaping Murray in front of the net to grant URI the 1-0 lead.

In the second half, the Bulldog's chances came few and far between, however, the Black and Gold capitalized on an opportunity in the 67th minute when free kick resulted in this season's second connection between redshirt freshman Hannah Crofut (East Amherst, N.Y.) and Biagi to even the score, 1-1.

However, any momentum gained by Bryant was quickly thwarted by the hosts when URI scored the eventual game winner less than 90 seconds later when Murray whipped a beautiful cross to the head of Leyh for the 2-1 advantage.

Despite allowing the two goals, sophomore goalkeeper Kaylan Conrad (Avon, Conn.) continued to excel between the pipes, stopping a career-best 11 shots.

"URI is a very good team, they came in unbeaten after winning a pair of tough overtime games," added Flint. "But our energy and effort were there all night. Coming into tonight we had played a lot of partial halves, but tonight was the first time we played a full 90 minutes and we'll look to build on the moving forward."

The Bulldogs will have a couple days of training before returning to the pitch on Sunday afternoon (1 p.m.) when they do battle with Iona in New Rochelle, N.Y.

For all the latest news on the Bryant University women's soccer team, visit BryantBulldogs.com.