PREVIEW: Women's Soccer at Rhode Island Thursday

PITTSBURGH - The Duquesne University women's soccer team will begin a two-game, conference road trip on Thursday night at Rhode Island.

THE BASICS

September 21, 2023 | 7:00 PM | URI Soccer Complex (Kingston, RI)

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

Rhode Island Rams (0-5-4, 0-0-1 A-10)

BY THE NUMBERS

Stats Comparison - WSOC 9-20-2023 vs rhode island

THE DUKES

Seven Duquesne Dukes have scored a goal this season and three have had multiple scores (Maya Matesa - 3, Brianna Moore – 3, and Jaimi Araujo - 2)
Matesa leads the team in points with seven points.

Four Dukes have four points or more (Moore – 6, Morgan Kulniszewski – 4, and Jaimi Araujo – 4)
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 sixth-most in the A-10.
With Karley Steinher's assist and Anna Bundy's goal at Kent State they became the 11th and 12th players to register a point this season for the Dukes.
With Maddy Neundorfer's eight saves on Sunday she climbed up to second in the A-10 in saves this season at 46 saves on the year, trailing only Emily Puricelli from Saint Louis with 49 saves.

LAST TIME OUT

Duquesne tied in back-to-back matches and is coming off a Sunday scoreless draw against Loyola Chicago.
Duquesne's defense stood strong to keep the game at a stalemate with defenders Karley Steinher and Lindsay Krafchick playing all 90 minutes for the Dukes.
Despite two shots from the Ramblers hitting the woodwork, DU would keep the ball out of their net for the fourth shutout this season.
Mackenzie Muir finished the game with a team-high two shots, both going on goal.

Neundorfer tied her season-high total of saves with eight total in the match to keep Duquesne in the game.

THE RAMS

University of Rhode Island is coming off a tough luck loss against Brown losing 1-0.
The Rams have yet to win with a record of 0-5-4.
The Rams have only scored two goals throughout their first nine games and registered a point with three different players.
They are led by their midfielders Tess O'Connell and Cristinia Sallent registering both of their goals for the season.
Rhode Island's lone assist has come from Erin Hopewell.
URI's keeper Faith Hutchins has produced three shutouts and has a save percentage of .844 this season which puts her fourth in the A-10 for save percentage this season.

THE SERIES

Duquesne and Rhode Island have met 21 times and the Dukes have a record of 5-12-4.
They won their last outing home at Rooney Field on September 15, 2022 with a score of 3-2.
Jaimi Araujo and Brianna Moore scored all three goals for the Dukes to help them win against the Rams.
The Dukes have only won one time on the road at Kingston which dates to 1997 in which they beat the Rams 2-1.
Their current away record against Rhode Island in 11 matchups is 1-7-3.
The Dukes largest margin of victory against Rhode Island was on October 25th, 2015, at home beating the Rams 3-0.

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.

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).

SHUTOUTS

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.
Duquesne has kept its opponents off the scoreboard four times this season … The most since six clean sheets in 2018.

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 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 78-95-27 overall record on the Bluff and a 39-51-15 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.

UP NEXT

Duquesne will travel to St. Bonaventure, New York on Sunday for the second game of a two-game Atlantic 10 road trip. Kickoff on Thursday is set for 1 P.M. from St. Bonaventure.

FOLLOW THE DUKES

For the latest news and updates for Duquesne women's soccer, follow @DuqWSoccer on Twitter and Instagram.