Women's Soccer Split Points with Villanova in BE Opener, 0-0

Published: Monday, September 23, 2024

by Victor Lisboa

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J - Today’s Alumni Day game honored the 30th season of Women’s Soccer at Seton Hall. While it didn’t necessarily fill up the scoreboard, the Pirates still showed a good effort in their Big East play opening match. Coming off of their 1-0 loss to Yale last week, the Pirates were looking to make up their lost points. However, in this game, the offense never found their rhythm, only able to get off one shot the entire afternoon. Even with the game script in The Hall’s favor, as Villanova came into this matchup averaging 8.8 shots per game but allowing 13.6, that was not the story of this game. 
 
Villanova came out firing early, gathering a total of four shots in the first half. Midfielders Susanna Soderman and Gabby Koluch each split the Wildcats’ total of six shots with three apiece. Most of their attempts were either saved, well-defended, or missed. The Pirates seemed focused, with good communication on their defensive side, with physicality on display for both teams. A total of 18 fouls in the game, seven from Villanova and 11 from Seton Hall, are just the numerical representatives of the physicality of this matchup. 

For The Hall, Natalie Tavana remained hot, coming off a game against Yale where she had six of Seton Hall’s shots. She notched The Hall’s only chance for this afternoon, but it wasn’t able to find the back of the net. Goalies Avery Strohecker and Anna Prawer were able to come up with big saves to keep Villanova off the score board, not letting them build any more momentum, since the Wildcats already had the shots advantage.

Both teams were aggressive on the backline, as the Pirates continued to crowd, challenge, and defend Villanova’s forwards. The Pirates seemed a bit more aggressive in the second half creating more opportunities, but their crosses often went out of bounds. They couldn’t capitalize on any of their three corner kicks, or even create more shot attempts besides their early one. 

The Pirates will look to spark some momentum to get back in the win column on Thursday at 4 p.m. against Georgetown. The Hoyas are 5-1-3 overall, 1-0 in conference, and are coming off back-to-back wins. But the Pirates won’t go down without a fight, and will look to slow down the conference rival, and get more offense into the game.

Victor Lisboa can be reached at victor.lisboa@student.shu.edu

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