The women’s soccer team embraces following their first fall 2022 Patriot League win against Loyola. (Photo by Rick Smith for GoLeopards)

This past Saturday, the Lafayette women’s soccer team (3-7-2 overall, 1-2-1 Patriot League) pulled out its first Patriot League victory of the season, beating the Loyola University Maryland Greyhounds (5-4-3 overall, 2-1-1 Patriot League) 1-0. Before the match, the seven members of the class of 2023 were honored for Senior Day.

Coming off of its last game against American University – which ended in a 2-2 draw after a last-second goal from American – the team was motivated to establish themselves early and maintain the lead.

“I think we were all super frustrated because obviously, we controlled most of the game, and especially in the second half the team did a really good job of managing the game, so super frustrating coming out of that weekend,” junior goalkeeper Lindsay Dewar said of the match against American. 

The Leopards used the practice time between the tie with American and the kickoff with Loyola to reset. They wanted to head into the match against Loyola prepared.

The only goal of the game came in the 34th minute from freshman forward Katrina Santelli, who headed the ball into the net off a corner kick from junior midfielder Emily Coe. The goal was Santelli’s second of the season.

“[The team was] super happy for [Santelli] because she’s doing really well. She’s a freshman and we’ve asked a lot of her. She’s come up really big,” Dewar said. 

The Leopards recorded four shots, two on goal. The Greyhounds had eleven shots, with six on goal. Senior forward Sara Oswald led the team with two shots, one on goal. She also leads the team in total shots this season.

Lafayette senior goalkeeper Natalie Neumann played for the first half of the game and recorded two saves before being replaced in the second half by Dewar. She made three saves during her 45 minutes of playing time, with particularly notable saves in the 84th and 86th minutes of the game.

“They pulled through… and were just so calm and collected the entire game,” Santelli wrote about the goalkeepers.

At the end of the year, the Leopards will graduate Neumann, forwards Oswald and Melissa Lamanna, midfielders Kaia Deane and Haley Pursel and defenders Erin Pickett and Rory Schauder.

Santelli wrote that the coach encouraged the team to “run that extra yard for the seniors,” and that she “thinks that everyone just wanted to pull through with the win to make Senior Day that much better.”

Lafayette will be hosting the Bucknell Bison tonight at 7 p.m. Coming off a win, the team is highly motivated going into this game.

“Everyone is continuing to work hard and keep the energy high in practice this week,” Santelli wrote. “You can tell every day that the whole team really shows up and wants to win, the atmosphere is really great.”