Sean McKean | Staff Writer
Duquesne women’s soccer split a pair of one-goal contests on their weekend slate.
On Thursday night, the team defeated Fairleigh Dickinson with a score of 1-0 in a game delayed by lightning storms.
An action-packed first half may not have seen too many goals, but it saw aggressive defense. For the first 28 minutes, neither team appeared to have taken control of the game quite yet.
Still, three shots and some dangerous setups from Maya Matesa put the Dukes on the front foot early. However, the game had to be halted in the 29th minute because of lightning strikes in the area. The delay would turn out to be an hour long before either team got back out on the field.
When asked about whether the delay affected the women’s games, Duquesne Head Coach Al Alvine looked at it impartially.
“I think we did a good job staying focused during the delay,” Alvine said. “Our only worry was just keeping everybody together, remaining focused.”
When the match resumed, the Dukes remained in charge offensively, and they didn’t have to wait long to break through. In the 32nd minute, substitute forward Brianna Moore scored the first and only goal for either side in the tie.
For the rest of the half, the Dukes maintained control of the ball for the most part, and Moore nearly scored another goal less than four minutes after the first. Once halftime arrived, the score stood at 1-0.
At the beginning of the second half, the Dukes maintained their advantage with the help of aggressive defense that forced mistakes from the Knights. While simultaneously holding things down defensively, Libby Majka and Margey Brown registered shots within the first 10 minutes of the half as FDU began to press harder on the defense.
As time ticked down, the Knights kept the Dukes on high alert with many near-goals by FDU. However, Duquesne protected its lead through a series of shots by the Knights in the waning minutes, as the Dukes held on for a 1-0 victory. Alvine believed that the positive result would boost his squad’s confidence for the future.
“Winning gives you confidence. Keeping a clean sheet gives you confidence,” he said.
On Sunday afternoon, an 81st minute goal from Anna Bundy wasn’t enough to rescue the Dukes from a 2-1 loss to Kent State. Despite a scoreless first half, it was an action-packed 90 minutes during which the teams combined for 31 shots, although the Dukes only managed to get six on target compared to the Golden Flashes’ eight.
Siena Stambolich starred for Kent State, opening the scoring in the 58th minute, before assisting on an insurance marker 17 minutes later.
The Dukes are back in action on Thursday night, when they travel to North Carolina to face Davidson, before returning to Rooney Field for a clash with Loyola Chicago on Sunday afternoon.