Oct. 30, 2005
Box Score
The Duquesne women's soccer team ended Senior Day on a positive note taking visiting George Washington 2-1 in an Atlantic 10 Conference match Sunday afternoon on Rooney Field. The win gives the program it's first-ever Atlantic 10 Championship berth and 10-win season. Duquesne ends the regular season 10-5-1 overall, 5-4-0 in league play.
The Conference record put Duquesne in a four-way tie for fifth with UMass, Xavier and Saint Joseph's. By virtue of the tie-breaker, SJU took the fifth seed and Duquesne earned the sixth and final seed for the Championship. Duquesne will face Charlotte at 5:30 pm on Thursday at the University of Dayton.
Senior Erica Carey notched the game-winning score from sophomore Audra Mathews at the 88:50 mark, launching Carey as the Dukes all-time goal leader with 19 career scores. Senior Randi Scheller scored the first goal of the game at 36:36 for the Dukes. Junior Ginny Bondi went the distance in goal racking up eight saves on 14 shots. George Washington's Ina Kain tied the game off a corner kick at 59:46.
Duquesne held a slight 12-10 shot advantage in the first half, but the one that counted was Sheller's long shot to the far right corner of the net at 36:36 to give the Red & Blue a 1-0 edge they would take into the intermission. It wasn't an easy half as Bondi stopped seven shots in the first frame, including a diving save in the 40th minute.
Nearly 10 minutes ticked off the clock in the second stanza until Lise Backman took the corner kick to set up Kain's score at 39:46. The Dukes saw several missed opportunities in the final 20 minutes of play as Paolucci tipped a long bomb from Faye Rasmussen in the 71st minute, DU's Kelly Reed had a shot go just past the goal post in the 77th minute and GW tipped a shot in the 80th minute that just cleared the crossbar. Senior Martine Gilbert saw a shot go just wide enough to miss the net in the 80th minute before Sheller had back-to-back shots that resulted in a block and save in the 83rd minute. But it was Carey's score that made the difference in the final minute.
The second half wasn't as evenly played as the score indicates with Duquesne out-shooting the Colonials 15-4, giving GW keeper Kelly Paolucci 17 saves in the contest. For the game, DU held a 27-14 shot advantage and a 7-4 edge on corner kicks.
