Nov. 5, 2004

Box Score

AMHERST, MA - A streak was going to end this afternoon in the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 Women's Soccer Championship at Rudd Field. Saint Joseph's and its four-game winning streak was up against Dayton and its national-best 18-game winning streak. Unfortunately for the Hawks, their dreams of breaking the Flyers' streak and advancing to the A-10 Championship game came to a halt as Dayton downed Saint Joseph's 2-1.

Dayton, which was ranked 20th in the most recent SoccerBuzz Top 30 poll, controlled the game in the early going, launching three shots on Saint Joseph's junior goalkeeper Nicole DiEnna in the first 10 minutes.

The Hawks tallied their first shot in the 19th minute as sophomore Kaiti McCaffery lifted a shot over the crossbar.

After regaining control, the Flyers marched the ball back into Saint Joseph's end as Dayton's Tesia Kozlowski had two scoring chances against DiEnna. Fortunately for the Hawks, both of Kozlowski's shots sailed wide right.

Atlantic 10 Offensive Player of the Year, Dayton's Reba Sedlacek made her presence felt in the 26th minute. Sedlacek took a crossing pass from teammate Courtney Sirmans and beat DiEnna to the right corner to give Dayton a 1-0 lead at 25:48.

Dayton kept control of the tempo for the remainder of the half, out shooting the Hawks 3-0 over the final 19:12.

The play opened up in the beginning of the second half as both teams registered early shots. Following a DiEnna save, SJU sophomore Megan Schutt struck a ball that sailed over the crossbar.

The Flyers took possession of the ball after Schutt's shot and pressured it deep into Saint Joseph's end. Despite giving possession to the Hawks on an errant Sedlacek shot, Dayton regained control following a SJU foul. Kozlowski made the Hawks pay, delivering her fourth goal of the season off a deflection at 56:21. Sirmans set up the play, taking a pass from teammate Jen Simonetti and finding Kozlowski streaking towards the goal.

Trailing by two, Saint Joseph's refused to give up, and rallied to pull within one, 2-1, in the 78th minute. Sophomore forward Ali Wean took a pass from teammate Alisha Paine and hit a turn-around shot from 15-yards out that beat Dayton's Stacey DeLuca at 77:37.

Both teams volleyed the ball over the midfield line over the final 12 minutes, with Saint Joseph's gaining control with less than a minute remaining. The Flyers' defense pressed the Hawks in the waning moments, forcing a Dayton goal kick with under 10 seconds remaining to end the game.

For the game, Dayton out shot Saint Joseph's 13-5 and held a 4-1 edge in corner kicks.

In net, DiEnna was the hard-luck loser for the Hawks, making two saves in the effort. DeLuca earned the victory, making one save.

For the Hawks, the season comes to an end with this afternoon's loss. Saint Joseph's posted a 9-11-1 overall record in 2004, including a 6-4-1 record in the Atlantic 10. Even though the season didn't finish the way SJU might have hoped, the team did earn the program's first victory in the A-10 Championships with yesterday's 1-0 victory over La Salle.

Dayton, with today's victory, now advances to the Atlantic 10 Championship game versus Rhode Island at 1 p.m. on Sunday.