Women's Soccer | 9/12/2019 12:41:00 PM

MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- With just over a week to go until the start of Northeast Conference play, the Robert Morris University women's soccer team continues its September tuneups with a split weekend: At Ohio on Friday and back home Sunday for Yale.

ROBERT MORRIS (1-3-1) at OHIO (5-0-0)
Friday, Sept. 13 at 4 p.m.
Chessa Field, Athens, Ohio
LIVE STATS | AUDIO

ROBERT MORRIS vs. YALE (2-2-0)
Sunday, Sept. 15 at 11 a.m.
North Athletic Complex
LIVE STATS | VIDEO

LAST WEEK
Robert Morris played just one match last week, dropping a 2-1 result against Howard in Washington, D.C. The Colonials fell behind 2-0 after an hour of play, but freshman forward Kayla Veloso-Lima netted a penalty-kick goal in the 62nd minute to put the outcome into doubt; four of RMU's six goals on the year have been scored by first-year players. Junior keeper Sydney Bruckner stopped eight shots in her fifth appearance of the season, three of those being starts.

KNOW BOBBY MO
• While the results have been difficult to come by for the Colonials to this point, it's instructive to remember last season, when they went 2-8-0 in non-conference action before going 4-4-0 in NEC play and just barely missing out on the conference tournament. In fact, RMU has gone a collective 6-23-0 out of league over the past three seasons, but has rallied for a 12-12-0 mark against NEC foes during that span.

• Freshman Sheridan Reid's three goals to this point have her on pace to challenge an RMU record. 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 goal-getters in team history.

• With a goal in the season opener at Bucknell, senior attacking midfielder Kristina Kelley continues her climb up the program's all-time scoring chart. The senior from Halifax, Pa., has 12 career strikes in an RMU uniform, tying her with Kelly Haggard '96 and Hilary Nellis '06 for the eighth-most in team history. Three more goals this season would put Kelley in RMU's all-time top five.

• The Colonials return a pair of All-NEC selections in Kelley (Second Team) and sophomore defender Allie Ball (All-Rookie). RMU will look to replace the outstanding attack production of the graduated Jane Schleicher, who won 2018 NEC Offensive Player of the Year and First Team honors after a 13-goal senior season.

• Of the 11 players who started 10 games or more last year, RMU returns seven of those, plus six more who appeared in at least 10 matches in 2018. Senior Ontario native Megan DiNatale and Bridgeville's own Ball anchor the back line, while locals Bailey Farabaugh (Bethel Park), Nicolette Casarcia (Murrysville), Brittany O'Connell (North Huntingdon), Courtney Hurey (Imperial) and Taylor Burkley (North Hills) bring experience in the midfield.

• Reid is one of eight newcomers to the RMU fold, including seven freshmen in all. Sophomore transfer Devon Noll arrives from Long Island, where she started twice and appeared eight times overall in 2018. Five of the newcomers are from Pennsylvania, with New Jersey and the nation of Norway (Sofie Lien Fagereng) also represented.

• Senior goalkeeper Julia Schmid stood out in the record books last season, stopping 87.3 percent of the shots she faced to set the all-time program single-season mark, previously held by Becky Schoenecker '15. Schmid, a native of Germany, stopped 62 of 71 shots on target in 2018, making the most of her nine appearances (six starts).

• 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
The Colonials have matched up against Ohio in each of the past four seasons and six times since 2006, but they've been able to grab just one win against the Bobcats, 1-0 in 2016. Bruckner has played in the past two matchups between the programs, stopping 17 shots across two starts.

RMU's history with Yale is much shorter, with just last year's 2-1 loss in Connecticut on the record books. Burkley, then a sophomore, scored the Colonials' lone goal in that match last September, with classmate O'Connell (pictured above) picking up the assist.

OPPOSITION RESEARCH
Ohio is undefeated and rolling after smashing Southern Illinois 7-0 last Sunday at home, matching the second-most goals ever scored in a game by a Bobcats team. Seventh-year head coach Aaron Rodgers has seen his team outscore opponents 16-4 on the season, including six goals against Youngstown State and four against Marshall. Three freshmen have two goals apiece: Reigning Mid-American Conference player of the week Heather McGuire, Olivia Darrow and Maddie Young.

Yale, which will host Fordham on Thursday before traveling to Moon Township, is coming off its first regulation loss of the season, 2-1 at Virginia Tech last Sunday. The Bulldogs have a plus-4 goal differential thus far under first-year bench boss Brendan Faherty, with wins over Fairfield and Loyola (Md.) to their credit. Senior forward Aerial Chavarin is riding a three-match goal-scoring streak, leading Yale with four tallies so far.

FILM STUDY
"We work well as a team, but it's just a matter of being organized and moving forward." - Kelley on the Colonials' drive to improve throughout non-conference play

Watch her full interview with Matt Gajtka here:



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)

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 Pittsburgh Riverhounds of what was then called the A-League. Kowalski was inducted into the Riverhounds' inaugural hall of fame class this summer, the fifth hall of fame he belongs to.

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 UP
The Colonials will conclude non-conference play at Akron on Thursday, Sept. 19, before hosting NEC rival Mount St. Mary's on Sunday, Sept. 22.