PREVIEW: Women's Soccer vs. FDU on Thursday at Rooney Field

PITTSBURGH - The Duquesne University women's soccer team begins its final week of non-conference play with a home matchup against FDU on Thursday evening at 6 pm at Rooney Field.

THE BASICS

September 7, 2023 | 6:00 PM | Rooney Field (Pittsburgh, Pa.)

Duquesne Dukes (2-4, 0-0 A-10)

Streak: W1 | Roster | Stats | Schedule

FDU Knights (0-6, 0-0 Northeast)

Streak: L6 | Roster | Stats | Schedule

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

BY THE NUMBERS

THE DUKES

Duquesne enters this matchup coming off the back of a win on their senior night winning 2-0 against Saint Francis University at Rooney Field on Sunday.
Lindsay Krafchick scored the game winning goal in the 26th minute on a header from a corner getting her first goal of the season.
Krafchick became the sixth player on the team to score a goal this season.
Maya Matesa leads the team in points with seven points and goals with three.
Sophomore midfielder Mackenzie Muir and Matesa are tied for the team lead with 12 shots ... Matesa fired a game-high four last game and Muir is the only Duke to take at least one shot in every game this season.

LAST TIME OUT

The Dukes are coming off a huge win beating Saint Francis University, 2-0, to stop a three-game losing streak winning on the team's Senior Day.
Morgan Kulniszewski was a massive playmaker in the last game, getting both of the primary assists for Duquesne and is now leading the team in assists with three.
The first goal of the match came from Lindsey Krafchick scoring her first goal of the season to give the Dukes the lead in the 26th minute.
Maya Matesa led the team in shots and scored the second goal of the game right before halftime to secure an insurance goal to cruise to a comfortable win.
Duquesne had a season-high in shots last time out totaling 20 shots with 10 on goal and will look to keep the offensive pressure up.
Duquesne held SFU to just one shot on goal, the best defensive outing of the season thus far ... Savanna Keppy made the lone save needed in the first half ... Keppy made her first career start last game, Maddy Neundorfer finished the final 45 minutes between the posts.

THE KNIGHTS

FDU has yet to get in the win column this season starting the year on a six-game losing streak.
Last time out the Knights lost 3-2 to New Jersey Institute of Technology on Sunday.
Two of their three goals for the season were scored in their last matchup with Naemi Hausen and Kiomy Luperon each scoring their first goal of the season to be tied for the team lead with one goal.
The Knights had their season high both in goals with two and in shots with eight their last time out and will look to keep their offense on the upswing.

THE SERIES

The Dukes will being playing their first ever matchup against FDU.

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 her second goal of the season last time out 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 three assists … Six different Dukes have recorded an assist this season.
Eight of the nine Duquesne goals this season have been assisted on ... Two DU scores have resulted from double assists.

USING THE DEPTH

Duquesne has had 21 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 second shutout win of the season on Sunday. The last time DU had multiple shutout wins in a season was the 2021 spring season with three.

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 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 a 77-94-25 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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