Emory University freshman Veronica Romero and senior Lauren Smith each scored goals in the final eight minutes of play to give the eighth-ranked Eagles a 2-0 win over Berry College on Saturday at the Woodruff P.E. Center.

After a defensive battle left the team scoreless for the first 82 minutes, the Eagles finally broke through on Romero’s second goal of the season.  Senior Melanie Levy was able to find her teammate with a pass near the end line, and Romero in turn converted the shot for her second game-winning goal of the campaign.  It was the third assist of the season for Levy, who now has 11 points this season.

The Eagles would strike again just over two minutes later, Smith scored her team-best sixth goal of the season, taking a pass from Lauren Gorodetsky and shooting across the box and past the goalkeeper.  Smith now leads all Emory scorers with 12 points on the campaign.  Gorodetsky was credited with her first collegiate assist on the play.

The two teams played a relatively even first half, with Emory notching eight shots, compared to seven for Berry.  The Eagles had three shots on goal during the frame, while the Lady Vikings put two on frame.  However, Emory dominated the second half, allowing Berry just four more shots, only one of which was on goal.  Meanwhile, the Eagles took 10 second half shots, including six on goal.

For the sixth-straight game, sophomore goalkeeper Erica Stein recorded a scoreless performance, making two save during the first half.  She was relieved in the second half by Kaele Leonard, who made one save and earned the victory to improve to 8-1-2 for the campaign.  Stein lowered her goals-against average to 0.52 on the season, while Leonard’s dropped to 0.37.

The shutout was the eighth by the Emory defense this season.  It was also the eighth time that the Eagles’ backline has allowed three or less shots on goal this season, as the team has now gone 21-straight games, dating back to last season, without allowing a double-digit shot on goal total to its opponent.

The victory for the Eagles marked the team’s fourth-straight win, the last three of which have all been 2-0 shutout victories.  Emory improved to 12-1-2 on the season with the win, while Berry dropped to 6-5-2 with the loss. 

The Eagles will resume conference play next weekend hosting the University of Rochester on Friday, October 29^th at 5:00 PM.