PREVIEW: Women's Soccer Opens A-10 Play at Davidson Thursday Night

PITTSBURGH - The Duquesne women's soccer team will begin its Atlantic 10 Conference schedule on Thursday night at Davidson.

THE BASICS

September 14, 2023 | 7:00 PM | Alumni Soccer Stadium (Davidson, NC)

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

Davidson Wildcats (3-4, 0-0 A-10)

BY THE NUMBERS

Stats Comparison - wsoc 9-13-2023 at Davidson

THE DUKES

Seven Duquesne Dukes have scored a goal this season and three have had multiple scores (Maya Matesa - 3, Jaimi Araujo - 2, and Brianna Moore - 2)

Matesa leads the team in points with seven points and goals with three.
Moore and Morgan Kulniszewski each scored their fourth point against Farleigh Dickinson, making them two of four players on the Dukes with four or more points.
Kulniszewski is in a two-way tie for third in the A-10 with four assists this season.
Matesa also leads the team lead with 22 shots which is good for fifth most in the A-10.
With Karley Steinher's assist and Anna Bundy's goal they became the 11th and 12th players to register a point this season for the Dukes.

LAST TIME OUT

Duquesne is coming off a hard-fought, but frustrating loss to Kent State University, 2-1, on Sunday.
The game was a stalemate through the first half with Duquesne keeping pace with the Golden Flash in most stat categories with the shots at 9-7 to Kent State.
From the 58th minute to the 75th minute the Dukes went down 2-0 putting them in a hole late in the game
Duquesne was able to fight back bagging a goal in the 80th minute with a score from Anna Bundy, her first career goal, that came from a long ball from a free kick coming from Karley Steinher.
Maddy Neundorfer tied a season-high in saves in her last outing making six saves against the Golden Flash to keep the game close till the end.
Maya Matesa led the team again in shots four and shots on goal with two continuing to be a consistent offensive weapon for the Dukes.

THE WILDCATS

Davidson College is coming off the back of a win against Presbyterian College 3-0 at home and will also open A-10 play on Thursday night.
The Wildcats three goals in their last matchup was the season high for goals in a game as a team.
They had three different forwards score a goal in the game which puts Davidson up to five different players who have scored a goal this season.
Aleia Gisolfi-McCready tallied the first assist in the win against Presbyterian and has been the biggest X-factor on offense leading the Wildcats with two goals and five points.
Goalkeeper Emily Smith is second in the A-10 in shutouts with three shutouts including her last shutout against Presbyterian College.

Davidson was picked to finish 12th in the A-10 preseason poll and is led by first-year head coach Riley Piechnick.

THE SERIES

Duquesne's all-time series record against Davidson is 3-4-4 making this their 12th matchup against the Wildcats.
The last matchup against Davidson was October 28, 2022, with the Dukes falling to the Wildcats 2-0 on the road in the Atlantic 10 Championship Quarterfinals.
The last regular season matchup against Davidson was on October 9, 2022, at Rooney Field which ended in a 1-1 draw. Jaimi Araujo tallied the goal for Duquesne in the matchup and Anna Bundy the lone assist.
The last win Duquesne had against Davidson was a 2-0 win at Davidson on October 8, 2017.
The last two regular season matchups against the Wildcats ended up in ties, one at home and one on the road.

DUKES IN A-10 OPENERS

Duquesne is 2-2-1 in its last five Atlantic 10 openers and 12-13-1 all-time.
The Dukes won last season's opener 3-2 over Rhode Island at home ... This is the first away match to start A-10 play since 2018 (L, 2-0 at UMass).
Duquesne has never opened its A-10 schedule against Davidson.

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.

ASSISTS ALL AROUND

Morgan Kulniszewski leads the team with four assists in 2023 … Seven different Dukes have recorded an assist this season.
Ten of the 11 Duquesne goals this season have been assisted on ... Two DU scores have resulted from double assists, as the team has 12 total.

USING THE DEPTH

Duquesne has had 20 or more players see action in every game this season … An early season most, 28, played in the home opener vs. American (5-0 win).

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).

SHUTOUT VICTORIES

The Dukes recorded their third shutout win of the season with its 1-0 defeat of FDU, a 2-0 win over Saint Francis, and 5-0 win over American … DU last had three shutout victories in the 2021 spring season.

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. The Monroeville, Pa. played all 90 minutes between the posts in the season opener on Thursday and made five saves.

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 Jaydn 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 a 78-95-25 overall record on the Bluff and a 39-51-13 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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