Following three consecutive road contests to open the season, the Fordham women's soccer team opens its home schedule this weekend, taking on Army on Friday night and Iona on Sunday afternoon at Jack Coffey Field. The Army game is the second half of a soccer doubleheader with free snacks and refreshments will be available throughout the night's action.
Fordham stands at 0-3 this season, while Army is 2-2 on the year with Iona at 0-3-1.
LIVE COVERAGE:
Friday – Army at Fordham - Live Stats | Live Video (Subscription Fee) | Follow on Twitter
Sunday – Iona at Fordham - Live Stats | Live Video (Subscription Fee) | Follow on Twitter
SERIES HISTORY AGAINST ARMY: This is the ninth all-time meeting between Fordham and Army. Army holds a 6-1-1 record against the Rams, but the last two contests were a scoreless tie in 2009 and a 1-0 win by Fordham in 2010. In that last meeting, Kaitlyn Carballeira scored the lone goal of the contest in the eighth minute off a Colleen Brady corner kick.
SERIES HISTORY AGAINST IONA: This will be the 13th all-time meeting between the Gaels and Rams, and the first since 2008. The series dates back to Fordham's first season as a varsity sport in 1993. Since then, Fordham holds a 9-3 mark against Iona, having won each of the last eight meetings, seven of which were shutouts.
LAST TIME OUT: For over 75 minutes, the Fordham women's soccer team held tough in the team's Sunday matinee at Rutgers, but in the end left on the wrong end of a 3-0 decision in Piscataway, New Jersey.
With the loss, Fordham falls to 0-3, while Rutgers improved to 4-0.
Though Rutgers ended the contest with three goals over the final 14 minutes, the story was Fordham's defense over the first 75 minutes, as the Rams held the high-powered Scarlet Knights offense off the scoreboard.
Freshmen goalkeeper Megan Fitzgerald, along with freshmen defenders Ally Doyle, Bryce Debolt, and Nicole Bates and senior defender Casey Nowakowski, kept Rutgers at bay throughout the opening half. Doyle, getting the start at left back, came up with strong defensive efforts in the first half to steal the ball from the Rutgers attackers or fend off the players on multiple occasions.
When she didn't, Fitzgerald came up big in her first career start, making four stops in the first half.
The Rams almost opening the scoring near the end of the first half, as Jessica Melendez drew a foul, giving Fordham a free kick from 20 yards out. Kelsey Dougherty Howard tried to pick the top right corner and would have done so if not for Rutgers goalkeeper Jessica Janosz, who used all of her 6-0 frame to push the ball away at the last moment.
The second half was more of the same, as Fitzgerald came up with stop after stop, including a beautiful kick save against Jonelle Filigno in the 64th minute, as the freshman stared down the Rutgers' top offensive threat.
However, Fitzgerald, as well as Fordham's defense, would finally succumb to Rutgers, as Madison Tiernan got in behind the Fordham defense on a long ball in the 77th minute. Tiernan then cut back on Doyle, with Doyle's foot just getting a piece of Tiernan for a foul in the box for a penalty kick. Filigno would then take the penalty kick and score her third goal of the year.
Tiernan would make it 2-0 just four minutes later off a feed from Filigno, while Jessica Puchalski closed out the closing for Rutgers in the 87th minute.
In goal, Fitzgerald finished with 13 saves in the game, the most for a Fordham goalkeeper since Elisabeth Roald recorded 13 in the 2006 Atlantic 10 Championship game against Saint Louis. Janosz had four saves for the Scarlet Knights.
WHO'S NEXT: Following this weekend, the Fordham women's soccer team is back on the road next weekend, when the squad plays at Dartmouth on Friday, September 13th at 7:30 PM, and at Vermont on Sunday, September 15th, beginning at 1:00 PM.
