The Stony Brook women’s soccer team’s home finale went the exact way it needed to go.
With their postseason chances hanging in the balance, the Seawolves (6-5-5, 4-4-3 CAA) honored their seniors on Sunday with a monumental 4-2 win over the Elon Phoenix (2-9-4, 1-7-2 CAA). Along with the win, the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) lost 3-1 to Monmouth later in the day, moving Stony Brook up to sixth place in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA).
The Seawolves took just over seven minutes to find the back of the net. A second into the eighth minute, forward Gabrielle Côté found the space to load up for a shot, but her attempt deflected off two Elon defenders. The loose ball fell to forward Luciana Setteducate, who softly placed the ball into the bottom right corner to give Stony Brook a 1-0 advantage.
Stony Brook doubled its lead in the 28th minute when midfielder Linn Beck curled a ball to forward Ashley Bell, who beat Elon defender Kerri Coffman to it. In a one-on-one with Elon goalkeeper Anna Hamner, Bell snuck a shot into the bottom left corner to make it 2-0.
After going most of the season without scoring, Bell has now put up a goal in back-to-back games. The freshman is glad to be contributing when her team needs her the most.
“It’s awesome,” Bell said in a postgame interview with The Statesman. “It’s perfect timing too because this is the time where we really most need it to make it to the playoffs.”
A comfortable 2-0 lead changed quickly in the 54th minute when Elon forward Lydia Totten pulled one back to cut the Seawolves’ lead to 2-1. Stony Brook snatched the momentum back in the 68th minute, when a cross from defender Catharina von Drigalski was met by a header from Setteducate to restore the team’s two-goal lead.
Just over a minute later, von Drigalski created another goal off a corner kick. Her cross deflected off Setteducate and into defender Kerry Pearson, who lasered a shot past Hamner to make it 4-1. Elon forward Ashlee Brehio cashed in on a penalty kick in the 77th minute to finish the scoring, but it made no difference on the match’s outcome.
The Seawolves took 21 total shots and landed a season-high tying 15 on target. Beck led the Seawolves with five shots and landed all of them on target while also recording an assist. Eight different players recorded a shot on goal. Côté earned her second assist of the year, while von Drigalski tallied her fourth.
As for Setteducate, she had the best game of her NCAA career to this point after taking four shots, landing three on goal and scoring twice. The goals were her first two of the season.
“It felt good to get two goals; it was a long time coming,” Setteducate said.
Stony Brook’s defense was not particularly strong. Elon took 15 shots and landed 11 on goal, forcing goalkeepers Nicolette Pasquarella and Ava King to combine for nine saves. Pasquarella played the first 74:08 of the game and stopped six of the seven shots she faced, while King made another three saves and conceded her first goal of the year on Brehio’s penalty.
Opposite them, Hamner made 10 stops for Elon.
In regards to the playoff picture, the Seawolves are still not in control of their own destiny. UNCW still has two more matches left on its schedule, while Stony Brook only has one. Therefore, since the Seahawks own the head-to-head tiebreaker between the two teams, the Seawolves need help from their remaining opponents to secure the final playoff spot.
Head coach Tobias Bischof remains hopeful for his team’s postseason chances.
“We did our job,” Bischof said. “Most likely, we are going to need a positive result at Northeastern — but it’s obviously not an easy place to play. We are going to go up there and try to fight our way into the playoffs.”
As Bischof said, Stony Brook will play the Northeastern Huskies in Boston on Thursday at 6 p.m. The Huskies have clinched a playoff berth already and are 8-3-4 overall and 6-1-3 in conference play this season. They are coming off a 1-0 win over first-place Towson on Sunday.
Kenny Spurrell also contributed reporting.
