Women's Soccer | 10/3/2019 1:30:00 PM

MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Following its first Northeast Conference defeat, the Robert Morris University women's soccer team aims for a rebound as it challenges New York-area opponents Wagner and Long Island on its first league road trip of 2019.

ROBERT MORRIS (3-6-1, 1-1-0 NEC) at WAGNER (3-6-1, 1-0-1)
Friday, Oct. 4 at 7 p.m.
LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO

ROBERT MORRIS at LONG ISLAND (2-7-1, 1-1-0)
Sunday, Oct. 6 at 1 p.m.
LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO

LAST WEEK
The Colonials had just one match on the schedule last week, a 1-0 loss to NEC rival Bryant at home. For the second time this season, a first-half own goal cost the Colonials, as they couldn't convert any of their 17 shots. Junior keeper Sydney Bruckner stayed strong with five saves, while senior Kristina Kelley paced RMU with five shots, two on goal.

KNOW BOBBY MO
• A native of Mechanicsburg, Pa., Bruckner has been a workhorse in goal to this point, seeing action in all 10 matches, starting eight of those. Her seventh RMU shutout, recorded Sept. 22 vs. Mount St. Mary's, pushed her to a tie for fourth on the program's all-time list, while her .859 save percentage is on pace to be the third-best single-season mark in team history.

• On a team with eight newcomers, it's fitting that two freshmen lead the way in terms of scoring. First-year forwards Sheridan Reid and Veloso-Lima are tied for RMU's top spot with three goals apiece, with Veloso-Lima adding a pair of assists to pace the Colonials in points. The last time RMU had this many goals contributed by freshmen was in 2008 (eight).

• Reid and Veloso-Lima have opportunities to write their names in the RMU record books. The most goals scored by a Colonials freshman is 10, by Kathleen Caggiano '10 during the 2007 season, while Ayana Davis '12 and Katie Dugan '02 had nine and eight goals, respectively, in their first seasons on campus. Dugan (first), Davis (second) and Caggiano (fourth) are all among the top overall goal-getters in team history.

• With two goals netted so far, senior attacking midfielder Kristina Kelley continues her climb up the program's all-time scoring chart. The senior from Halifax, Pa., has 13 career strikes in an RMU uniform, moving her one past Kelly Haggard '96 and Hilary Nellis '06 for the eighth-most in team history. Two more goals this season would put Kelley in RMU's all-time top five.

• While results were difficult to come by in non-conference action, it's instructive to remember last season, when the Colonials went 2-8 out of league before going 4-4 in NEC play and just barely missing out on the conference tournament. All told, RMU has gone a collective 7-25-1 out of league over the past three seasons, but has rallied for a 13-13-0 mark against NEC foes during that span.

• The Colonials return two All-NEC selections in Kelley (Second Team) and Chartiers Valley's own Allie Ball (All-Rookie). Not coincidentally, they rank 1-2 on the team in minutes played. WPIAL products Brittany O'Connell (Norwin) and Courtney Hurey (West Allegheny) also have started all 10 games, as has Veloso-Lima. Seniors Megan DiNatale and Nicolette Casarcia (Plum) are next up in terms of playing time.

• Out of the Colonials' 13 underclassmen, seven have played in all 10 games so far: Angela Van Damia, Colleen Sullivan, Chelsea Kingston (pictured above), Hurey and Ball. Three more have seen action in at least eight matches: Sofie Lien Fagereng, Devan Noll and Bailey Farabaugh. 

• The Colonials added one of their own to the coaching staff this season, with Alexa Sarsfield '15 joining the team as an assistant. A former All-NEC defender, the native of Springdale, Pa., started 62 of her 71 total matches for RMU from 2010-13. She coached at the youth level with QuickSkillz Soccer from 2016-19.

HISTORY LESSON
Technically, Sunday will mark the Colonials' first-ever meeting with Long Island, which is the product of a merger between the LIU Brooklyn and LIU Post athletic programs. There's no such interruption in the all-time series against Wagner, which is 24 matches long and dates back to 1998. RMU is 13-2-1 against the Seahawks since 2006, including a 2-1 comeback victory last year in Moon Township. In that one, Kelley scored the tying goal shortly before Jane Schleicher '19 notched the winner.

OPPOSITION RESEARCH
Long Island won just once in eight non-conference matches, but the Sharks are hoping a 3-2 win at St. Francis Brooklyn last Friday represents a breakthrough, as they'd scored just twice in the nine previous matches. Coach Eleri Earnshaw, a native of Wales, headed up the LIU Brooklyn team for the past two seasons, but the Blackbirds won just once in league play over that span.

Wagner has arrived at an unbeaten mark in NEC play by virtue of a 2-0 win at St. Francis Brooklyn and a 2-2 home draw against Sacred Heart. Senior co-captain Maria Nunez scored her team-high fifth goal of the season from the penalty spot to clinch the latter of those two league results. Third-year coach Phil Casella has given all three of his goalies at least one start.

HONOR ROLL
The following Colonials have been honored by the NEC this season ...
Sheridan Reid - Rookie of the Week (Aug. 26), Prime Performer (Sept. 4)
Sydney Bruckner - Prime Performer (Aug. 26, Sept. 17, Sept. 25)
Kayla Veloso-Lima - Prime Performer (Sept. 17)

THE KOWALSKI FILE
A 2000 inductee into the RMU Athletic Hall of Fame, coach John Kowalski returns for his 18th season. The native of Miłków, Poland, led the RMU men's soccer team to four NEC regular-season championships and two NEC Tournament titles before taking over the women in 2002. In 2015, he led the women's team to its lone NEC tourney appearance to date, for which he was named league Coach of the Year.

Kowalski has just about done it all in his coaching career, from managing the U.S. Men's National Team in 1991 and our nation's international futsal (five-a-side) squads for 10 years, to heading up the Tampa Bay Mutiny of Major League Soccer and the second-tier Pittsburgh Riverhounds upon their 1999 debut. Kowalski was inducted into the Riverhounds' inaugural hall of fame class this summer, his fifth such induction.

MARCH WITH THE COLONIALS
In addition to reports and videos on RMUColonials.com, check out Twitter and Instagram for news and updates throughout the season.

NEXT WEEK
The Colonials return to the North Athletic Complex next weekend for a pair, taking on Sacred Heart on Friday, Oct. 11 and Fairleigh Dickinson on Sunday, Oct. 13.