The Dayton women’s soccer team has done everything necessary to prove that its success last season was no fluke.
The Flyers won the 2009 Atlantic 10 title and topped that accomplishment off by winning a game in the NCAA Tournament and advancing to the second round.
Last season’s superiority has carried over for the Flyers (12-2-0, 4-0-0 A-10) who routed UMass last week 5-0 and are outscoring their A-10 opponents, 14-1.
Sophomore forward Colleen Williams has made up for the loss of last year’s top point scorers, Mandi Back and Lauren MacCormick. Williams leads the conference in goals scored (12) and assists (six). A handful of complimentary players have stepped in and contributed as well. Seniors Kelly Blumenschein and Jerica DeWolfe are the other offensive stalwarts for Dayton.
Williams and goalkeeper Lisa Rodgers have received national attention for their individual performances thus far.
Williams ranks fifth nationally among D1-A competition in points scored with 30 points. While Rodgers has played flawlessly in the net, allowing only three goals, her 0.326 goal-against average also ranks fifth nationally among goalkeepers.
The Flyers are on the road this week against Temple and Saint Joseph’s.
POW, ROW announced
Saint Joseph’s Maggie Lupinski and Saint Louis’ Jenny Hummert were named the A-10 women’s soccer Player of theWeek and Rookie of the Week, respectively.
Lupinski tallied a goal and an assist in the Eagles first A-10 victory of the season against Temple. Her goal came in the opening minutes of the contest when she picked off an errant pass in Temple’s defensive zone and beat the goalie to give her team an early lead.
Later in the half, the junior set up Mo Hawkins for the game-winning goal in the 2-1 contest.
Saint Joe’s (4-8-0, 1-2-0 A-10) takes on Xavier at home this Friday.
Meanwhile, Hummert ended her team’s seven-game goalless drought and then went on to score Saint Louis’ only goal in its first A-10 victory of the season.
Hummert opened the week up by providing the Billikens with a 1-0 first half lead against Duquesne. However, two second-half goals by the Dukes temporarily kept SLU out of the win column.
Two days later, the Billikens (2-7-5, 1-3-0 A-10) got their first conference win at the hands of St. Bonaventure. Hummert sealed the team’s first victory with the game-winning goal in the 78th minute.
Bonnies dethrone 49ers
The St. Bonaventure women’s soccer team handed Charlotte its first regular season conference loss since 2007 last Friday.
Senior forward Anna Cunningham scored twice on passes from junior Tori Burchett and freshman Jordan Calabria added an insurance goal to lead the Bonnies to their 3-1 trouncing of Charlotte.
The two teams entered the game going in opposite directions. The 49ers (10-4-0, 3-1-0 A-10), winners of their last four, looked as if they would overpower the Bonnies (7-6-0, 1-2-0 A-10) who had dropped their previous two contests.
It’s been an up-and-down season so far for St. Bonaventure. In September, they beat Cornell and Colgate, to take a share of the Colgate Nike Invitational. Following the pair of victories, SBU knocked off Canisius and Niagara to win the PUMA/Big 4 Tournament outright.
October has also been eventful for the Bonnies. They began the month, and conference play, by losing to Duquesne. The loss was followed by an impressive upset of Charlotte. Finally, they dropped a 1-0 contest to conference cellar-dweller SLU..
The 49ers’ last regular season conference loss was on Oct. 28, 2007 against Rhode Island. Since that date, they posted a 22-0-2 record and appeared in three straight conference championship games.
Jackson Alexander can be reached at [email protected].
