The Women’s Soccer team will wrap up the season on Friday, Oct. 31, when they take on the Georgetown Hoyas at home.
The Pirates are coming off a 1-0 loss to rival-St. John’s on Saturday. The loss adds to the Pirates’ winless streak, which has now reached eight games without a victory (5 losses, 3 ties). The Pirates are still winless in conference play (0-5-3) and have a 3-9-5 overall record.
The team will be partaking in Senior Day on Friday, and will honor senior players Peggy Nicolle, Angie Shehaj, Mikayla Hickey, Rachel Friedman and Kristina Meier.
“For the most part we played really well. We defended well and we were able to create some opportunities for ourselves, but Saint John’s capitalized on a great opportunity. We lost to a great team, but we’re looking to keep progressing,” head coach Rick Stainton said.
It hasn’t been an ideal season offensively for the Pirates. The team hasn’t scored a single goal since an Oct. 5 1-1 draw at Creighton. Despite this, Stainton believes there is plenty of potential left in his group.
“We are doing well. We’ve had difficult losses throughout the season but we’ve always responded well. We have a very solid foundation and we continue to grow with that. We have a lot of potential,” he said.
Ahead of their final regular season match, the Pirates have continued to put focus on finding offense.
“We’re working on our offense and our attack. We have the mindset, we need to work on how we’re going to go about the attack and make opportunities for ourselves” Stainton said.
Throughout the season, The Pirates have been successful defensively. Sophomore goalkeeper Illissa Blackshear has stopped 12 of 13 shots over the last two contests and the Pirates have shut out or conceded just one goal in 13 of 17 matches this season.
The Hoyas enter Friday’s meeting with a 10-3-4 overall record, going 5-1-2 in conference-play. Georgetown is coming off a 1-1 tie versus conference-opponent Villanova on Sunday. Coach Stainton believes that his team has a chance of winning if the team can score against the Georgetown defense, which has surrendered seven goals on the year.
“Georgetown is going to be strong all over the field,” Stainton said. “I think we are matched up well. If we can score it will be hard to beat us.”
While the season comes to an end on Friday, the first-year head coach believes that his team is nowhere near finished.
“We’ve been competitive all season, shown great fights and a great foundation,” he said. “We’ve seen individual development among all players. We play in a very competitive league; one of the best in the nation. Our season isn’t going to end just because our last game is on Friday. We’ll continue to look forward to our future.”
Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 31, at Owen T. Carroll Field. Those looking to attend Senior Day festivities should plan to arrive as early as possible.
Olivia Mulvihill can be reached at olivia.mulvihill@student.shu.edu
