The Stony Brook women’s soccer team were the big winners of the night despite their tie with the Hartford Hawks on Thursday, Oct. 31. With the tie, the Seawolves clinched a share of the America East regular season title for the second consecutive season, as well as the No. 1 seed heading into the America East tournament.
Despite outshooting Hartford 14-10 in total, the Seawolves got a big boost between the sticks from junior goalkeeper Sofia Manner and her five saves on the night. In the end, 90 minutes and two overtimes were not enough to determine a game winner. But with the draw, the Seawolves won the night as they remained in first place heading into postseason play. Both Stony Brook and Albany ended the conference season with a 6-1-1 record, but the Seawolves own the tiebreaker due to their 3-1 victory against the Great Danes on Oct. 17.
“This was the first of many goals,” head coach Tobias Bischof said in a postgame press release. “It’s a process and we are happy that we took the first step tonight. Now, it really starts. The team has tremendous heart and it doesn’t matter what the circumstances are, they work hard. We are happy with where we are, finishing in first place. Now we get ready for our semifinal.”
With their final record of 12-5-1, the Seawolves have scored a total of 31 goals in the season against an allowed 17. Their total shot on goal percentage was 50.4% as 120 of their 238 shots were on goal this season.
The Seawolves are locked and loaded to make some noise in the postseason. They boast four First-Team All-Conference players in Manner, juniors midfielder Kimmy Chavkin, forward Fanny Götesson and forward Alyssa Francese. Junior midfielder Chelsie DePonte represents the Seawolves on the Second Team, and freshmen midfielder Paula Petri and forward Catherine von Drigalski are on the All-Rookie Team.
The road to their ultimate goal will see the Seawolves try to defend Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium against the winner of No. 4 New Hampshire and No. 5 Binghamton in the semifinal round. The game will take place on Thursday, Nov. 5 at 6 p.m.
