Women prep for dual New York matchups

Starting off the season with their best record since 1997, the women's soccer team returns home to face the Syracuse Orange on Friday and the St. John's Red Storm on Sunday.

The Pirates enters the weekend with a record of 7-2-2 overall, 2-1-0 in the Big East. The Hall were on a five game unbeat­en streak until they lost to West Virginia on Sept. 23 but came back with a 3-0 win over Pittsburgh.

During the stretch, senior goalkeeper Elizabeth Bond has been strong in goal recording three shutouts, including two in conference play.

On the season, Bond has a 4-1-1 record and has only allowed seven goals in six appearances. She also has 38 saves for a .844 save percentage.

Along with strong defense and goal­keeping, the Pirates have been able to find the back of the net recently with seven goals in their last four games.

Sophomore Katie Ritter is the leading scorer for the of the Hall with six goals. Senior Taylor Wilson is right with Ritter on the score sheet with four goals to go along with a team high three assists.

The Orange come into the match against the Pirates with a record of 3-4-3, 2-2 record in conference play. Syracuse won their last Big East match against Vil­lanova by a score of 1-0.

For the Orange most of their games have been low scoring with the team al­lowing only .9 goals per game but have only been able to average .7 gpg.

The goalkeeper for Syracuse is sopho­more Brittany Anghel, she has recorded five shutouts and has made 36 saves, while playing every minute of the year.

Junior Tina Romagnuolo leads the Or­ange in goals scored with two despite only playing in eight games and starting in six.

After facing Syracuse at home, the Pi­rates will host the St. John's Red Storm to Owen T. Carroll field on Sunday.

The Red Storm have a 6-4-1 record on the year and has a 2-2 record in con­ference. Two of St. John's games have had overtime finishes with the Red Strom splitting the two games.

In their last game, St. John's lost to Georgetown 2-1 in overtime. Three min­utes into overtime the Hoyas were award­ed a penalty kick and converted to win.

The Red Storm will play Rutgers on Friday before facing the Hall.

Stephen Valenti can be reached at ste­phen.valenti@student.shu.edu