Oct. 3, 2006

Hello Cardinal Soccer Fans!

This past weekend saw the Cards take on St. Johns and Syracuse, neither of which we had ever played. With St. Johns ranked in the Northeast region, a win would go a long way for our national ranking status. Two minutes in we gave up a strange goal as the St. Johns player dribbled to the endline, and miss hit a cross off the outside of her foot, which found it's way into our net. After a sloppy first half, we regrouped in the locker room and came out very sharp to open the 2nd half. It was probably our most dominating 45 minutes of the year. After several near misses, we finally connected when Jamie Craft dribbled through the Red Storm defense and scored her 6th goal of the year. The Cards kept the pressure on St Johns, continuing to create chances. With just over three minutes remaining, Laura Walker sent a beautifully placed corner kick into the box which found Erica Robinson's head for the game winner! After dominating the game and the stats (19-4 in shots) we had earned a very well deserved 2-1 victory.

The Syracuse Orange were in town for Sunday's 1:00 kickoff. They had been struggling to get results but had played a very challenging schedule. The Orange came out in a 4-5-1, making it difficult for us to create quality scoring chances. With three minutes to go in the first half, Jen Avila picked off a Syracuse pass, took on a defender and scored her 5th goal of the season with a great shot to the left corner. We made some adjustments at halftime and came out a bit sharper in the second 45 minutes. Monique Gjini put us up 2-0 on a classic Monique finish from 25 yards out. The game finished that way, our third Big East win in 6 days, and an all important 9 points on the week.

At 9-1-1 and ranked 15th in the nation, there isn't much time to stop and enjoy the season's success. With Villanova and Georgetown coming to town this weekend, we have a big challenge ahead of us. Off to training....

Go Cards!

Coach Ferguson

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