Red Storm Hosts Fordham In Belson-Opener

Aug. 26, 2011

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QUEENS, N.Y. - St. John's will cap off the month of August with a busy weekend that includes two rivalry games. On Friday, the Red Storm will host local rival and Bronx-neighbor, Fordham University in a 7 p.m. match under the lights at Belson Stadium. In a quick turnaround, that includes a six-hour bus ride back down below the Mason Dixon line, St. John's will travel to Charlottesville, Va. for a Sunday evening contest against Virginia at 4 p.m., a re-match of the Red Storm's 2009 NCAA Tournament first round game.

St. John's and Fordham have played each other 12 times since 1987 with the Red Storm holding an 7-2-3 series advantage. The Bronx-Queens rivalry was renewed last season in the Hofstra Invitational, after an eight-year hiatus. St. John's defeated Fordham, 1-0. The Red Storm has won the last two meetings between the two teams and boasts a 4-1-1 record at Belson vs. the Rams.
St. John's and Virginia have played each other once in the Red Storm's 25-year history. Their meeting was an important one as the squads faced off in the first round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament (Nov. 13). The Cavaliers defeated St. John's in a shootout, 3-1, to advance to the tournament's second round. It was St. John's first-ever tournament appearance.
Friday's game will be aired live on StormTracker All-Access, with live stats provided by GameTracker. James Coluccio will be on the call along with Red Storm alumna Nicole Canning as the analyst. Fans can tune in for a monthly fee of $9.95 or an annual subscription of $79.95.
Friday's game-day promotion is the fall schedule poster giveaway. Women's soccer as well as men's soccer and volleyball posters are available at the marketing table.

Scouting The Rams

Fordham is coming into Friday's contest after opening the season against another BIG EAST opponent on the road. The Rams played Seton Hall on Aug. 21 to a double-overtime loss with various lightning delays. Seton Hall's Taylor Wilson scored the game-winner to give the Pirates a 3-2 victory.
Fordham rookie Kristina Maksuti scored both goals for Fordham, after seven shots with three on goal. She just missed a hat trick as her third shot went off the crossbar in the second half. Maksuti was a 2010 NSCAA All-American out of Bethlehem Central high school. Goalkeeper Rachel Suther tallied five saves in the net for the Rams.
Fordham was picked to finish sixth in the 14-team Atlantic 10 Conference. Rookie Maria Lorena Canicatti was picked to the A-10 Preseason All-Rookie team. Canicatti was a Regional ODP player and a National Pool player since 2007 and has attended National Team training camp in Pomona, Calif. in 2007. Was part of a club team that made it to the finals of the 2010 US Youth Soccer U-17 National Championships.
Fordham returns seven starters from last season, where the Rams finished 8-10-1 with a 4-4-1 conference record. Fordham also welcomes nine newcomers to the pitch in 2011.
Senior Mariella Romano returns as the Rams' leading point scorer from 2010 with 11 points off four goals and three assists. The core of the Rams' scoring graduated 2011 as Michelle Ancelj and Katie McDermott accounted for 23 of Fordham's 58 points last season.

Rams vs. Red Storm - The Series

St. John's and Fordham have played each other 12 times over the course of 25 years. During the mid 90s, early 2000s, the Red Storm and Rams had a consistent rivalry, playing each other nine-straight years from 1994-2002. St. John's held a 5-2-2 advantage over Fordham during that period. Last year, the Rams and Red Storm renewed their Bronx-Queens rivalry that was on hiatus since 2002. St. John's defeated Fordham, 1-0 at the Hofstra Invitational, as Runa Stefansdottir scored the game-winner in the final six minutes of the first half. Red Storm head coach Ian Stone is 6-2-2 against Fordham.

Scouting The Cavaliers

Virginia (2-0) is ranked No. 6 in the NSCAA Top 25 and No. 15 in the Soccer America poll for the week of Aug. 22.
The Cavaliers opened the season with a pair of wins, rallying from a 1-0 deficit to record a 2-1 win over then-No. 13 West Virginia; then defeating Richmond, 6-0 on Aug. 21. Gloria Douglas led UVa offensively with one goal and three assists over the first two games. Virginia has already tallied 27 points off eight goals and 11 assists. Chantel Jones (2-0-0) will be in goal for Virginia after posting three saves and allowing one goal in last weekends pair of games.
Cavalier rookie Morgan Brian was named the 2010-11 Gatorade National Female High School Athlete of the Year in July.
Virginia advanced to the third round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament, defeating Lehigh and South Carolina before losing to Ohio State, 3-2.

Cavaliers vs. Red Storm - The Series

Sunday's meeting is just the second all-time between Virginia and St. John's, the first meeting in regular season play. The only previous meeting came in 2009, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in University Park, Pa. Virginia knocked St. John's out of NCAA Tournament Championship contention as the Cavaliers advanced 3-1 on penalty kicks after the two teams played a scoreless draw, despite UVa's 39-6 shot advantage in the game. Raelynne Lee scored the only penalty kick for St. John's in the contest (Nov. 13, 2009).

StormTracker - Last Time Out

Last weekend, the Red Storm went 1-1-0 after what became a four-day road trip to Virginia. St. John's lost 5-0 in the season-opener at William & Mary on Aug. 19, then rallied back with a 2-1 victory at George Mason in a rescheduled game on Monday, Aug. 22. Senior Jen Leaverton and rookie Deanna Murino scored for St. John's, while junior Patrice Casimir tallied her first assist of the season. It was Murino's first-career goal, while the score was Leaverton's eighth.
The Red Storm and Patriots were scheduled to play on Sunday - but after 56 minutes of play and a lightning delay, the contest was cancelled and moved to Monday and the score was reset at 0-0. Leaverton had scored in Sunday's restarted game as well.

Celebrating 25 Years Of Women's Soccer

The 2011 campaign is the 25th season of St. John's women's soccer as an NCAA Division I Varsity program. The first-ever game was played on Sept. 9, 1987 at Southampton. St. John's lost 7-2. The first-ever St. John's women's soccer victory was at Monmouth College, 5-1, on Sept. 20, 1987. St. John's has an all-time program record of 196-185-41.
Head coach Ian Stone is the third-ever coach of the St. John's women's soccer program. He was preceded by Matt Strong (1987-1988) and Ron Jabusch (1989-1993).
In 25 years of women's soccer, Stone has had the most accomplishments as he has led the team to a 1994 BIG EAST Championship title, a 2002 ECAC Championship, the first-ever NCAA Tournament berth in 2009, eight BIG EAST Championship appearances and four ECAC tournaments.

Stat Of The Week: Red Storm In Home-Openers

The Red Storm is 12-12-0 all-time in home-openers. St. John's has played Fordham four of those times with a 3-1 record in home-openers against the Rams. The last time St. John's played Fordham in a Belson-opener was on Sept. 5, 2002. The Red Storm won 5-1. The last time St. John's lost its home-opener to Fordham was on Sept. 1, 1998 in a 1-0 loss. St. John's lost last year's home-opener to Columbia, 2-1 on Sept. 19.

Up Next

St. John's will host Albany, Columbia and Hofstra in the fourth New York City Classic. The Red Storm will play the Great Danes on Friday, Sept. 2 at 7 p.m. and follow with a contest against the Lions on Sunday, Sept. 4 at 4 p.m. Hofstra will play preceding the Red Storm on both days, playing Columbia at 4 p.m. on Friday and Albany at 1 p.m. on Sunday. All four games will stream live on StormTracker All-Access for a fee.
All season long, follow all the action from St. John's women's soccer via a twitter (@stj_wsoccer). Search the hash tag #stjwsoc.

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