Women's Soccer | 10/30/2019 7:19:00 PM
MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- The
Robert Morris University women's soccer team will conclude its 28th season of play with a Senior Day showdown Friday afternoon against a first-year program in St. Francis Brooklyn. Four-year contributors
Kristina Kelley,
Nicolette Casarcia,
Megan DiNatale and
Julia Schmid (pictured above) will be honored prior to the kickoff.
ROBERT MORRIS (5-10-2, 3-5-1 NEC)
vs. ST. FRANCIS BROOKLYN (0-15-0, 0-8-0 NEC)
Friday, Nov. 1 at 12:30 p.m.
North Athletic Complex
LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO
CATCHING UP
The Colonials split a weekend trip to New England, falling 5-2 at first-place Central Connecticut and winning 1-0 at Merrimack. Although RMU was eliminated from Northeast Conference postseason contention with the defeat at CCSU, senior Casarcia enjoyed a career day, scoring a goal and adding her first NCAA assist.
Two days later, Kelley's second-half strike held up as the game-winner against the Warriors, while junior keeper Sydney Brucker notched her ninth career shutout -- and fourth of the season -- with an excellent seven-save performance. The win gave the Colonials at least four results (wins or ties) in NEC play for the seventh consecutive year.
Following the weekend, the Colonials earned their third NEC weekly award, with freshman
Kayla Veloso-Lima getting the nod as league Rookie of the Week for scoring her team-leading fourth goal off Casarcia's longball assist at Central Connecticut.
HISTORY LESSON
The Colonials have never played fledgling
St. Francis Brooklyn, but they have won their past two Senior Day games, including a 2-1 victory last October vs. LIU Brooklyn. Senior
Jane Schleicher '19 capped an incredible final year on campus, scoring twice to give her 13 goals, the second-most in program history behind only Katie Dugan's 14-goal 2002 season.
OPPOSITION RESEARCH
St. Francis Brooklyn has encountered the expected first-year struggles, scoring just four times while losing its first 15 games. However, three of the Terriers past four losses have come by the thinnest of margins: 1-0. Head coach Justine Lombardi has gotten those four goals from four different players, with Norwegian freshman Henriette Lykke adding two assists to go with her goal.
FILM STUDY
"I think we're better than our record shows. I hope we can keep up that winning feeling and that confidence for Friday." - Casarcia spoke this week with
Matt Gajtka about her last NCAA game and looked back on her career at RMU.
KNOW BOBBY MO
• 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 the team lead with four goals; the last time the Colonials had this many goals contributed by freshmen was in 2008, when they also got eight from first-years. Also, Veloso-Lima is tied with classmate
Colleen Sullivan for the team lead in assists, with two.
• A native of Mechanicsburg, Pa., Bruckner has been a workhorse in goal to this point, seeing action in all 17 matches and starting 15 of those. Her ninth RMU shutout, recorded Oct. 27 at Merrimack, pushed her into solo fourth on the program's all-time list, while her .823 save percentage is on pace to be the fifth-best single-season mark in team history.
• Bruckner's performance has had a large influence on the Colonials' overall defensive success. The team has a collective 1.36 goals-against average, which is on pace to be the fifth-best such mark in program history, which dates back to 1992. With a shutout in the finale, the 2019 team could rise into fourth place on the all-time list. The 2014 squad holds the current record, at 1.24.
• With three goals netted this season, senior midfielder Kelley continues her climb up the program's all-time scoring chart. The senior from Halifax, Pa., has 14 career strikes in an RMU uniform, moving her one past Kelly Haggard '96 and Hilary Nellis '06 for the eighth-most in team history. One more goal this season would put Kelley in RMU's all-time top five.
• Reid and Veloso-Lima have opportunities to write their names in the RMU record books. The last time a Colonials freshman led the team in scoring was in 2008, when Norwin's Jess Sharik pulled it off. Veloso-Lima has 10 total points, while Reid is in second place with nine.
• The Colonials return two All-NEC players in Kelley (Second Team) and Chartiers Valley's
Allie Ball (All-Rookie); they're the top two Colonials in minutes played. WPIAL products
Brittany O'Connell (Norwin) and
Courtney Hurey (West Allegheny) also have started all 17 games, too. Seniors
Nicolette Casarcia (Plum) and
Megan DiNatale have played in 16 and 15 games, respectively.
• Of the Colonials' 13 underclassmen, five have played in all 17 games so far:
Angela Van Damia,
Colleen Sullivan,
Chelsea Kingston, Hurey and Ball. Three more have seen action in at least 13 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.
HONOR ROLL
The following Colonials have been honored by the NEC this season ...
Sheridan Reid - Rookie of the Week (Aug. 26, Oct. 8), Prime Performer (Sept. 4)
Sydney Bruckner - Prime Performer (Aug. 26, Sept. 17, Sept. 25)
Kayla Veloso-Lima - Rookie of the Week (Oct. 29), Prime Performer (Sept. 17)
Devan Noll - Prime Performer (Oct. 8)
Nicolette Casarcia - Prime Performer (Oct. 29)
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 HOF.
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.
