NEWARK, NJ—Rider's Shannon Kelly scored on a 12-yard shot in the 71st minute to lift visiting Rider to a 1-0 victory over NJIT in non-conference women's soccer Sunday afternoon on Lubetkin Field at Mal Simon Stadium.
 
Kelly scored off a feed from junior Hollie Kelsh to key the victory for the Broncs, who evened their season's won-lost record to 3-3 with the victory at NJIT. Rider, which won the 2014 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship and reached the NCAA Tournament, has won its last two contests after a 1-3 start.
 
The defeat drops NJIT to 2-5 on the season, with the last three defeats coming by identical 1-0 scores. The previous two defeats, at Canisius and at Hartford, came on an overtime penalty kick vs. Canisius and an own-goal vs. Hartford.
 
Both goalkeepers played strong games. Rider's Bethany-May Howard, who was Most Valuable Player of the 2014 MAAC Tournament as a sophomore, posted nine saves in notching her third clean sheet of the 2105 season.
 
NJIT's senior keeper Samantha Bersett had no chance on the game's only goal, but several of her six stops were difficult, none more so than her save on a penalty kick late in the opening half. After a foul in the 42nd minute, Rider's Heather Maierle took the pk, sending a hard waist-high shot aimed inside the right post. Bersett guessed correctly, diving to deflect the shot back into play where it was cleared by the NJIT defense.
 
Most of the statistics were close, including total shots (17-14, NJIT), shots on goal (10-7, NJIT) and corner kicks (5-4, NJIT).
 
The game's only goal, the first of the sophomore Kelly's career, was an opportunistic one, as the visitors took advantage of a Highlander defensive breakdown in the goal area.
 
Rider's Kelsh, a member of England's U19 team and a former All-MAAC honoree, sent a diagonal pass from the upper right corner of the box in to an unmarked Kelly, who shot from just left of the penalty spot to beat NJIT's Bersett.
 
NJIT had some good missed opportunities in the opening half-hour. Melanie Zrno hit the crossbar in the 25th minute; Arianna Gerber's header was saved at the goal line by defender Maddie Lipton, and Nicole Baldassini's hard try from 15 yards in the 30th minute was saved by Rider's Howard.
 
With the Highlanders applying pressure in the closing couple of minutes, Baldassini carried down the middle into the box and her 15-yard ground shot went just wide of the right post on what would be her team's final opportunity of the hard-fought match.
 
NJIT has a hiatus of nearly two weeks to get ready for its next contest, the Atlantic Sun Conference opener at home vs. USC Upstate at 1 pm on September 26. That game, which is also Alumnae Day for the Highlanders, will be the program's first-ever contest as the newest member of the A-Sun.