The Seton Hall women’s soccer team earned its first win of the season in dramatic fashion over Albany (4-5-0) in extra time by a final score of 1-0. Senior midfielder Amanda Gulli scored the decisive goal with a bicycle kick in the 101st minute off of Frankie Maier’s corner kick.
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While both offenses struggled to create chances to score, both teams played exceptional defense. Albany was able to keep the ball in its final third for a significant portion of the first half, putting pressure on the Pirates’ defense. Despite this, neither Albany nor Seton Hall could piece together more than a few passes at a time for most of the first half.
While Albany did have seven corner kicks to Seton Hall’s three, Seton Hall had more quality scoring chances, especially in the second half. Head coach Rick Stainton was pleased with his side’s improvement offensively.
“Every game throughout the season thus far, we have been producing more and more opportunities,” he said.
The Pirates were able to get 10 shots on goal, with many of them being close to hitting the back of the net.
Luckily for the Pirates, their stifling defense made for an easy day for goalkeeper Illissa Blackshear. Albany put pressure on the Seton Hall defense, but Blackshear only had to make three saves. Stainton also credited the team’s defense as the reason for the better offense today.
“The attack is stemming from our defense first,” Stainton said. “So once we are winning the ball, we are creating turnovers and generating attack.”
Stainton was impressed with his team’s overall performance.
“We are a good team and today was a result that we earned because we have believe in the process,” he said. “Hopefully we can take this and carry it over into Big East play, knowing that we have the capability of winning games.”
The Pirates will look to continue their success in the first game of their Big East schedule. The will open up conference play Sept. 27 on the road against St. John’s at 7 pm.
Andrew Lombardo can be reached at andrew.lombardo@student.shu.edu.
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