St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Connecticut
Women's Soccer Battles UConn To 1-1 Draw
10/26/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 26, 2008
STORRS, Conn. - The St. John's women's soccer team traveled to Storrs, Conn. on Sunday afternoon and battled back to tie Connecticut and hang on for the 1-1 double-overtime draw.
With the tie and the Pittsburgh 2-0 loss to Marquette on Sunday, St. John's clinched the No. 4 seed in the American Division and will host Cincinnati, the No. 5 seed of the National Division, at Belson Stadium on Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. The winner of the first-round game will advance to the quarterfinals.
"I was really pleased with the team's performance today, and I want to thank Red Zone for coming to Connecticut to support us today," head coach Ian Stone said. "We are excited to move forward to postseason play. Cincinnati is a great opponent and we are looking forward to playing in front of our home crowd on Thursday night."
UConn (6-8-5, 4-3-4 BIG EAST) has owned the all-time series with St. John's (8-5-5, 4-4-3 BIG EAST), but the Red Storm has come on strong the past two seasons, defeating the Huskies 1-0 in double-overtime last year and then posting the first tie in history with the 1-1 draw today.
After strong defensive performances by both teams kept the game scoreless in the opening frame, Connecticut ended the tie six minutes into the second half. Ashley O'Brien received the ball and kicked it to Cory Bildstein. On the ensuing pass, Brittany Tegeler fired the shot past goalkeeper Kristin Russell for the score.
The teams went back and forth until C.J. Ludemann got the ball and kicked it high to Jen Leaverton, who fired a shot past the goalie for the score. The goal was the third of the season for Leaverton and the assist was the third of the year for Ludemann.
Neither team was able to break the tie the rest of regulation, as the contest went into overtime. St. John's defense was especially strong down the stretch, as UConn had 13 shots in the second frame but was only able to convert on one attempt.
In the overtime periods, both the Huskies and Red Storm challenged on both of their attacking zones, but the defensive efforts prevailed in the end as the Huskies and Red Storm were unable to score.
