The Seton Hall women's soccer team continued their losing ways this past weekend as they failed to defeat No. 5 Notre Dame and DePaul on the road. The pair of losses adds on to what is now a five game losing streak.
The Hall dropped in the rankings to seventh out of eight teams in the National Division of the Big East with a 2-5 conference record, 6-8 overall.
They are now 4-5 on the road and three out of their last four losses were within one goal.
On Oct. 10, the Pirates headed to Wish Field in Chicago, Ill., to take on the DePaul Blue Demons, but came up short, losing 1-0 in double overtime.
It was the first overtime match of the season for Seton Hall and the seventh for DePaul.
DePaul senior midfielder Lauren Pagone, who leads the team in goals and points, scored the lone goal in the game to give the Blue Demons the lead in the 107th minute in the second overtime period.
The victory kept DePaul's five-game win streak alive, four of which came in games that went past regulation.
The Blue Demons recorded four shots on goal, with nine total shots in the game.
Freshman Marie Klemme led the Pirates with three total shots, two of which were on goal. The remainder of the Pirates' nine total shots was split amongst four players and only one of them was on goal.
DePaul's keeper, sophomore Claire Hanold, recorded three saves in DePaul's sixth shutout of the season. Her counterpart, sophomore Jennifer Pettigrew, stopped three shots for the Hall, letting in just the one goal in extra time.
According to Pirate senior Katie Andreski, the team was totally capable of defeating DePaul, but just could not finish in front of goal.
"DePaul was a very winnable game," Andreski said.
"We outplayed them for the duration of the game and through overtime, but we were unable to stick the ball in the back of the net."
On Oct. 8, Seton Hall left Alumni Field in South Bend, Ind., home of the No. 5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish, in defeat as the Irish came away with a 2-1 victory.
The Pirates have now faced four ranked opponents this season, coming away with the victory on only one occasion, at home to Rutgers.
Seton Hall's lone goal came from redshirt sophomore Stephanie Soma, who scored after coming on as a substitute in the second half.
The Hall tallied four total shots, two of which were on goal.
On the other side, Notre Dame rifled 32 shots, 15 of them being on net. The Fighting Irish goals were scored by junior Melissa Henderson and senior Rose Augustin, who rank first and second on Notre Dame's goal scoring list this season.
Notre Dame's senior goalkeeper, Nikki Weiss, saw little action in both halves, totaling just one save on two shots, while allowing one of them through for a score.
On the other hand, Pettigrew was bombarded with 15 shots, saving 12 of them.
"Jen Pettigrew has secured her title as MVP of our season in my book," Andreski said. "Her performance against Notre Dame was nothing less than phenomenal; pure talent at its best. I have nothing but good things to say about the way she is carrying this team and pulling us up to a higher playing field."
Despite coming out on the losing end in both games this weekend, Andreski felt that the team achieved moral victory against one of the best teams in the country.
"We took the game as a moral victory, proving that we could run and fight with the best of the country," Andreski said. "As a player, you always love playing against the best when you're the underdog and you've got nothing to lose."
The Pirates will also be in action this coming weekend, as they travel to Queens, N.Y., for an evening match with the Red Storm of St. John's on Oct. 15.
They will then head north to Syracuse, N.Y., for an afternoon match two days later with the Syracuse Orange.
John Lopiano can be reached at john.lopiano@student.shu.edu.
