Box Score Box score

NEWARK, NJ—Megan Dellavalle and Kaelyn Gamel each scored a goal and Samantha Bersett recorded her second shutout of the weekend for NJIT in a 2-0 women's soccer home win against Rider late Sunday afternoon on Lubetkin Field at Mal Simon Stadium.
 
NJIT (3-5) won for the second time in 50 hours following a 1-0 decision vs. VMI on Friday afternoon. The two-win weekend marks the first time Highlanders have won back-to-back since late October 2010, when they paired consecutive home victories against Delaware State and Howard
 
Rider, fourth out of 11 women's teams in the 2013 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference preseason coaches' poll, drops to 3-3 after Sunday's loss. The Broncs had won three of their previous four, including a 1-0 victory Friday at Temple, which beat NJIT 2-0 in the 2013 season opener on August 23.
 
Sunday's two Highlander goals came in the early portion of the each half. Dellavalle's header off of a cross from Rebecca Tustin got things started at 11:23 and Gamel's unassisted insurance goal was 12:07 into the second half.
 
For Dellavalle, a junior from Santa Rosa, CA, the goal was her first of the season and fourth of her career, as she scored twice last year and once as a freshman in 2011. Tustin, a senior, earned her second 2013  assist two days after scoring the game's only goal Friday against VMI.
 
Gamel, a sophomore from Hamburg, NY, in the Buffalo area, did not score last season. But she has two goals this year after previously finding the mark in a 3-2 win at Saint Peter's on August 29.
 
NJIT's sophomore keeper, Bersett, made five saves in her second whitewash of the weekend, following up the clean sheet vs. VMI. The Missouri native has six shutouts in 28 career starts.
 
Rider used two goalkeepers, with freshman Bethany-May Howard playing the first half and allowing one goal while saving three and redshirt freshman Vanessa Perdomo allowed one goal and stopped five shots over the next 45 minutes.
 
The total shots were 18-14 for Rider and the corner kicks were even at four apiece. The shots on goal favored the Highlanders, 10-5.
 
The Dellavalle goal was a header past Rider's Howard off of a cross from the left side by Tustin.
 
Rider's Jennifer Meier hit the crossbar from 20 yards out in the 21st minute and Brittany Goulart did the same for the Highlanders in the 34th minute. NJIT senior Amanda Redden tried to head in the rebound of Goulart's miss, but Rider's Howard made a diving stop to keep the score at 1-0.
 
Gamel scored her goal from out near the home team bench area. The play began with what may actually have been an attempt to cross the ball for another player closer to the goal. But when her boot was blocked by the Rider defense, the carom came right back to her and she drove the ball home on the second try.
 
The win Sunday was NJIT's second in five all-time games vs. Lawrenceville, NJ-based Rider. acing a Division I schedule for the first time in 2006, the Highlanders did not take on the Broncs until 2009 and NJIT came out ahead that year, 2-0. A year later, Rider routed the Highlanders, 5-2, and the Broncs won in 2011 (2-0) and again last year (1-0 in two overtimes).
 
"I'm really happy for the girls," said NJIT coach Mandi Risden. "I'll go back to Friday's comments (after beating VMI) and say the week we had in practice was a big part of both wins. This one built off of what we did against VMI.
 
"That win, combined with jumping out early today, gave us energy for the whole game. By having good practices, the team is taking ownership of how it plays."
 
Asked about her team's visible improvement on both ends of the field in the less than three weeks of games so far, Risden responded: "There's still room to grow, but we're getting to a place where they believe in what we're trying to do and feel confident in themselves. Once a team does that, it builds from there."
 
NJIT, which has played five of its first eight games at home, will be on the road for nearly a month, playing five games between now and the next home contest on October 13. The five-game road swing begins with a short trip to Staten Island for a 7 pm game at Wagner on September 20.