PREVIEW: Women's Soccer at Saint Joseph's

PITTSBURGH - The Duquesne University women's soccer team will look to stay unbeaten in conference play and extend a two-game road win streak on Saturday at Saint Joseph's in its first match in eight days.

THE BASICS

October 7, 2023 | 1:00 PM | Sweeney Field (Philadelphia, P.A.)

Duquesne Dukes (5-5-3, 2-0-3 A-10)

Streak: T1 | Roster | Stats | Schedule

Saint Joseph Hawks (3-6-5, 3-1-2 A-10)

Streak: W1 | Roster | Stats | Schedule

Watch Live on ESPN+ | Follow Live Stats | Gameday Central

BY THE NUMBERS

THE DUKES

Eight Duquesne Dukes have scored a goal this season and freshman Anna Bundy (2) became the fourth to have multiple scores after the game-winner against Rhode Island on the road, along with Brianna Moore – 5, Maya Matesa - 3, and Jaimi Araujo – 2.
Moore leads the team in goals with five and in points with 10.
Six Dukes have four points or more (Moore – 10, Matesa – 7, Morgan Kulniszewski – 4, Anna Bundy – 4, and Araujo – 4, Cami Taylor -- 4) … 14 players have recorded at least one point this season.

Kulniszewski is in a three-way tie for fifth in the A-10 with four assists this season.
Matesa leads the team lead with 26 shots … Five Dukes have taken double-digit shots, of those Moore (64.3%) and Mackenzie Muir (55.6%) have put over half their shots on target.
Goalkeeper Maddy Neundorfer is tied for the A-10 lead with five shutouts while ranking third in total saves (53).
Duquesne has scored multiple goals three times this season and won all three matches (5-0 vs. American / 2-0 vs. St. Francis / 2-0 vs. St. Bonaventure).
The Dukes are unbeaten through five Atlantic 10 matches, at 2-0-3 … This would be the first time Duquesne would start off A-10 play undefeated through their first six conference matchups in school history.

The win at St. Bonaventure was back-to-back road victories for the Dukes, improving to 2-4-1 overall and 2-0-1 in conference play away from Rooney Field.

LAST TIME OUT

The Dukes squared off in a tough matchup facing the top of the A-10 against UMass at home battling the rain and wind Duquesne and the Minutewomen ended in a 1-1 draw.
The UMass offense struck first in the first half with a well-placed low pass from Juliana Ryan to Bella Recinos, who tucked it right under Neundorfer to give the Minutewomen a 1-0 lead.
DU would strike back with a pass upfield from Cami Taylor to DU's leading scorer this season, Brianna Moore who fired a laser from about 20 yards out beating UMass keeper Bella Mendoza.

The game stayed a stalemate in the second half, not without some hard-fought pressure including shots from Jaimi Araujo and Jayden Sharpless that barely eluded the back of the net.
Neundorfer made six saves, including her second save on a penalty shot this season, to help preserve the draw against the top team of the A-10.

THE HAWKS

Saint Joseph's enters the matchup blanking George Mason, 2-0, on Wednesday at home.
Natalee Vicari has been the team's best playmaker, as she's tied for the team lead in goals with two and has registered a team-high three assists for 7 points being the biggest difference maker for the Hawks this season.
Maddie Anderson and Chloe Khelil each have two goals this season, tied with Vicari for the team lead.
Katie Cappelletti posted her fourth shutout of the season in Wednesday's win.
The Hawks are putting pressure on other teams with five different players for the Hawks registering double-digit shots, led by Vicari with 19 and 11 on target.
This will be the third game of a three-game homestand for SJU ... The Hawks are 1-2-3 at home this season.

THE SERIES

Duquesne is 3-13-5 all-time against Saint Joseph's.

The last matchup was on at home on September 29th in which Duquesne tied 2-2.
Jaimi Araujo scored the lone goal credited to Duquesne as the second goal in the matchup came on an own goal for the Hawks.
The last win Duquesne had against SJU came back on October 21, 2007, on the road winning 2-0 which was also their largest margin of victory ever against the Hawks.

The Dukes record in their last 10 matchups against Saint Joe's is 0-7-3.

ALL-TIME LEADERBOARD

Graduate student forward Jaimi Araujo moved into a tie for 9th in career goals at DU with Sarah Nicholson (1995-98), with two goals early in the season to bring her career total to 15 in the Red and Blue.

Araujo would move into a four-way tie for 6th place on the all-time leaderboard on her next goal (16) … Lauren Bracco ('00-03), Faye Rasmussen ('04-07), and Morgan Herbert ('09-12) are all currently tied for 6th … The all-time leader at DU is Katie O'Conner (2015-18) with 25.

SINGLE SEASON LEADERBOARD

Sophomore forward Morgan Kulniszewski has four assists this season and her next assist will put her in a tie for seventh most in a single season.
Junior goalkeeper Maddy Neundorfer has five shutouts this season and if she gets another shutout this season, it puts her tied for fifth on the single-season leaderboard for shutouts tied with Devon Tabata back in 2014.
The Dukes have 16 assists as a team this season and three more assists will put them in 10th place all-time beating out the 2013 Duquesne University women's soccer team.

ASSISTS ALL AROUND

Nine different Dukes have recorded an assist this season … Morgan Kulniszewski leads the team with four assists in 2023.
14 of the Dukes 16 goals have been assisted this season ... Two DU scores have resulted from double assists, as the team has 16 total.
The 16 assists are the fifth-most in the A-10 by a team this season.

SHUTOUTS

The Dukes recorded their fifth shutout win of the season with its 2-0 win at St. Bonaventure, 1-0 win over Rhode Island, 1-0 defeat of FDU, 2-0 win over Saint Francis, and 5-0 win over American.
Duquesne has kept its opponents off the scoreboard six times this season … The most since six clean sheets in 2018 … Five of the six shutouts in 2018 were wins, as one ended in a scoreless draw.
Six shutouts is tied for the most by any A-10 defense this season.

HOME-OPENING SCORING SPREE

The five goals in DU's home-opening win were the most in a game since Sept. 15, 2019 (a 6-0 win vs. Youngstown State) and the most in a home opener since 2005 (a 7-0 win over Vermont).

The home opener was the third time in the Coach Alvine era (12th season) that Duquesne has scored five or more goals in a game (6-0 win at Saint Francis on Sept. 23, 2016 and the YSU victory in 2019).

BACK ON THE BLUFF

Duquesne returns all but one of their nine goal scorers from last year's squad that reached the first Atlantic 10 postseason tournament since 2019. The 2022 Dukes finished with a 6-7-3 overall and 4-3-3 conference record, bowing out of the A-10 Tournament in the first round (0-2 loss at Davidson).
Duquesne had 20 different players start at least one match last season and returns 15 of them.
Mackenzie Muir and Margey Brown were both named to the A-10 All-Rookie Team a year ago and are back for their sophomore campaigns.

Maddy Neundorfer returns for her junior season in net for DU. Neundorfer ranked second in the Atlantic 10 in saves (96) and saves per game (6.0) in 2022, starting all 16 games.

NEWCOMERS RIGHT IN THE MIX

Coach Alvine brought in a talented recruiting class of 11 new players to bolster the long list of returners.
Anna Campanella, a graduate transfer that spent time at Kent State and the past three seasons at Boise State, earned a season-opening start at Ohio, alongside freshman Jayden Sharpless, a transfer from Georgia State, are a pair of newcomers that have started every game so far this season.

SISTER, SISTER

The Dukes roster includes three sets of sisters this season. Kayla and her twin sister Skylar Leseck are freshman from Moon Township, Pa., Anna (freshman) and Emma Bundy (junior) from Wexford, Pa., and Anna (graduate student) and Ally Campanella (junior) from Hudson, Ohio.
Twins Kayla and Skylar Leseck are one of 16 twins playing Division I soccer this season … Kayla netted her first career goal late in the second half of the home-opening win over American.

WINNINGEST COACH IN PROGRAM HISTORY

Duquesne is led by 12th year head coach Al Alvine.
Alvine is the winningest coach in program history with an 80-95-28 overall record on the Bluff and a 41-51-16 mark in Atlantic 10 play.

Alvine doubled the Dukes win total from 2011 in his first season. He has led DU to five A-10 Tournament appearances. In 2015, he coached the Dukes to their first-ever Atlantic 10 Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance

PRESEASON POLL

Duquesne was picked to finish seventh in the 15-team Atlantic 10 Conference, its highest preseason rank since 2018.
Defending regular season and tournament champion, St. Louis is expected to repeat grabbing 14 of the 15 first-place votes.

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