Junior forward Alyssa Francese tried to take things into her own hands late in the open field and passed to junior forward Fanny Götesson, who returned the pass to Francese as she headed the ball into the goal. This wouldn’t turn out to be one of Francese’s NCAA-leading five game-winning goals, however, and despite the late momentum by the Stony Brook women’s soccer team, the two-goal lead built by UMass Lowell would turn out to be enough to crown them the victor.
“Full credit to UMass Lowell. We are a team that lives by our offense and they were able to hold us to just eight shots and two on goal. There’s a lot we have to improve on for Thursday, so we’ll need to practice hard as we get ready for a good Albany team,” head coach Tobias Bischof said in a press release.
The Seawolves simply didn’t provide the offensive firepower needed to overcome a two-goal deficit in this matchup, at least for the majority of the game. Stony Brook’s leading scorer, Francese, managed one goal, but it was in the 80th minute. UMass Lowell scored in the 8th minute and the 62nd minute and locked down the Seawolves offense until Francese’s goal plus another shot by her late. Francese provided the only two shots on goal for the Stony Brook offense in the last 10 minutes of the game, each separated by only two minutes as she nearly willed the Seawolves to victory herself.
Despite the loss, Stony Brook still holds the best record in the America East at 9-5 and the second best conference record at 3-1. This game snaps an all-time winning streak of four games in a series that now stands 5-3 in favor of Stony Brook. Francese scored her America East-leading 10th goal and is the first Seawolves player since 2013 to score double-digit goals.
The Seawolves are set to duke it out for first place in the America East in what should be an anticipated matchup with conference record leader Albany on Thursday. This was a matchup in 2018 that saw six total goals scored and ended in a 3-3 tie. The Seawolves will take on the Great Danes at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium, on Thursday, Oct. 17 at 6 p.m. Stony Brook currently leads the all-time series against Albany at 11-7-1 and 6-3 at home.
