St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Boston University
Red Storm Ends Season with 2-1 Overtime Loss to BU
11/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Final Stats | Photo Gallery 
| Box Score (PDF) | Postgame Press Conference
QUEENS, N.Y. - The finest season in the history of the St. John's women's soccer program has come to an end. Trailing until the 78th minute, Boston University rallied to beat the Red Storm, 2-1, in overtime at Belson Stadium in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday night.
"I thought it was a game in two halves in that we played very well to begin with, and I'll give Boston University a tremendous amount of credit because I thought they battled tremendously hard and put a lot of pressure on us in the second half and really dug a little bit deeper than we were able to tonight," said Head Coach Ian Stone. "I give Nancy Feldman a lot of credit. She's a tremendous coach and BU is a phenomenal program. You don't win the number of conference championships that they've won without being a very, very good team. Unfortunately tonight we just came up on the wrong end of the result."
The first NCAA Women's Tournament game to ever take place at Belson Stadium, the match marked the final collegiate appearance in the storied careers of the St. John's senior class. The first cohort in program history to ever appearance in two NCAA Tournament's, the class of 2016 has taken St. John's women's soccer to new heights during its tenure in Queens.
"It's obviously very bittersweet right now," said redshirt senior Georgia Kearney-Perry following the match. "I don't think it's sunk in fully yet, but I'm super proud and super humbled of everything we've achieved individually, as a program, as a team over my five years here. It's obviously very sad right now, but I'm really proud of everything this program has done. It's a beautiful program and we take pride in everything that we do and I think this season showed that."
In addition to Kearney-Perry, who won two BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year awards during her outstanding career, the senior class featured a number of other record breakers. Rachel Daly will graduate as the program's all-time leading scorer after netting 50 goals in just three seasons. Emily Cubbage stepped on the field for her 78th career match on Friday, the most of any player in program history. She is also the only player to make more than 70 appearances and start in every single one.
In addition to those three players, Shelby Halasz, Diamond Thomas, Alexis Urbanski, Katie DeVault, Alana Mitchem and Kelly Crevani all left indelible marks on the program during their time as members of the Red Storm.
"These seniors have meant so much to this program, because they've really taken the program to a different level," said Stone. "For us to be able to host an NCAA Tournament game on Belson, compared to where we were when they came in, they just elevated it to a whole different level and it's not just on the field, it's kind of the personalities and the leadership they show off the field to the younger players as well."
The Red Storm shattered numerous records as a team during 2015, most notably the program's single-season win mark of 14 set during the BIG EAST Championship year of 1994. The Johnnies also recorded 12 shutouts on the year, passing the old record of 10 set in 2008, 2009 and 2013. The squad also set a program record with a seven-game winning streak and allowed the fewest shots on goal in team history.
In the early going of Friday's game, the Red Storm (15-4-1) controlled the match, outshooting the Terriers (13-5-3) by a 6-0 margin before Jesse Schaefer found the back of the net in the 21st minute. The play, which resulted in the sophomore's second career goal, began with a Morgan Tinari corner kick. The junior, who led the BIG EAST in assists this season with nine, played it into the box, where it bounced around until it found the head of Daly. The senior from Harrogate, England, then played it across the cage to Schaefer, who headed it home herself to give the Johnnies the early lead.
The Red Storm continued to apply pressure in the waning minutes of the period and entered the locker room with a 1-0 lead on the scoreboard and a 5-0 advantage in shots on goal.
After turning the match into more of a back-and-forth affair in the opening minutes of the second half, BU finally netted the equalizer in the 78th minute, as Alexandra Cooper scored her first of the season to make it a tie game with 12:12 to go.
Neither team scored over the remainder of regulation, but the Terriers held the advantage in momentum heading into the overtime period, outshooting the Red Storm 6-1 after the game-tying goal.
The Terriers continued to play aggressively in the extra period and Clare Pleuler netted the game winner 3:52 into overtime.
The game drew nearly 1,200 spectators to Belson Stadium despite near-freezing temperatures and a biting wind.
BU will advance to take on Penn State in the Round of 32.
