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© Joey Khan Photography[/caption]
The Seton Hall Pirates women’s soccer team lost their first Big East matchup on Saturday, Sept. 24, falling 1-0 to the St. John’s Red Storm at Owen T. Carroll Field.
St. John’s dominated possession for the majority of the first half, but were unable to successfully find the back of the net. The Red Storm took seven shots in the first half but only two of them were on target, both saved by Pirate goalkeeper Anna MacLean. Seton Hall’s offense was stagnant in the first half, as the Pirates had trouble getting the ball across midfield and only managed to take one shot.
The Pirate offense showed slight improvement in the second half, but the Red Storm continued to have total control over the flow of the game. The team took another 11 shots to bring its total for the game up to 18, but a strong Pirate defense managed to hold them off for the majority of the match. In the 68th minute, MacLean committed a foul in the box to give St. John’s a penalty. Sophomore defender Anna Baldursdottir drilled the penalty kick into the right side of the net past a diving MacLean to give the Red Storm a 1-0 lead. The Pirates finally started to get into the offensive zone after falling behind, but St John’s blocked two shots in the 86th minute to close out a victory on the road.
Despite a close loss, head coach Rick Stainton had some positive thoughts coming out of this game.
“The one thing that we mentioned to the team is that we have fight in us,” coach Stainton said. “That’s the one thing that’s going to help carry us through some of these battles.”
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© Joey Khan Photography[/caption]
Stainton also praised the team for performing well against St. John’s, saying that they are one of the top-ranked teams and for the Pirates to go wire-to-wire with them is a great sign.
The defense managed to limit the Red Storm from scoring on any of the 18 shots the team took. Coach Stainton recognized their efforts, saying that the key on defense was “staying organized, staying somewhat compact, and trying to deny their opportunities.”
“If they were going to get them, they would get them from distance, which they did,” coach Stainton said. “I thought we defended very well and limited very threatening opportunities.”
With the loss, Seton Hall falls to 4-4-1 on the year, while the Red Storm improve to 6-1-3. Seton Hall resumes action on Thursday, Sept. 29, when the team continues Big East play in a road game against the Marquette Golden Eagles at 8 p.m.
Matt Lapolla can be reached at matthew.lapolla@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @MatthewLapolla.
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