St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Heads to Xavier on Thursday
10/19/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Watch Live | Live Stats | Game Notes (PDF)
QUEENS, N.Y. - Coming off its best win of the season, the St. John's women's soccer team heads to Xavier to take on the Musketeers in a BIG EAST battle in Ohio. The opening kick is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET from the XU Soccer Complex.
Thursday's match will be streamed live on the BIG EAST Digital Network. Mike Schmaltz will have the call.
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In their last outing, the Johnnies came away with a 1-0 win over BIG EAST leading DePaul, as sophomore Samie Scaffidi scored the deciding goal in the 75th minute. Scaffidi now leads the team with three goals and eight points, and is tied for the team lead with two game-winning tallies. Defensively, senior Diana Poulin made a season-high nine saves to earn her 10th shutout of the season, tying a single-season program record held by Kristin Russell (2008-11) and moving the Hauppauge, N.Y. native into third place on the NCAA leader board. The clean sheet was Poulin's 30th career shutout, which has her seventh among active players and just two shy of tying the program record for career shutouts, also held by Russell. For their efforts on the pitch, Poulin and Scaffidi earned conference-wide honors. Poulin was named the BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Week on Monday, while Scaffidi earned a spot on the Weekly Honor Roll. Additionally, a week after being named to Top Drawer Soccer's Midseason Top-100 List, Poulin was named to the Top Drawer Soccer National Team of the Week on Tuesday.
The Red Storm defense has been a driving force this season. The back line of Anna Maria Baldursdottir, Alexis Urbanski, Mikhaila Martinov, and Jesse Schaefer has started every game for the Johnnies in 2016, holding opponents to just eight goals in 15 games, good enough for a BIG EAST leading GAA of 0.49. Sporting the nation's 10th-best team GAA, the Red Storm has shut out 67 percent of its opponents this season, good enough for sixth in the NCAA.
SCOUTING XAVIER
Xavier enters Thursday's match coming off a 1-0 victory over Villanova in its last outing. The Musketeers own an overall record of 7-8-1 and a 1-5-0 mark in BIG EAST play.
Goalkeeper Toni Bizzaro was named the BIG EAST Freshman of the Week on Monday after playing the second half against Villanova and making three saves to preserve the 1-0 win, while sophomore Samantha Dewey was named to the Weekly Honor Roll after scoring the game-winner against the Wildcats.
Senior Lauren Sullivan leads the BIG EAST in points and goals with 25 and 10, respectively. Her goal total is also tied for the sixth-most in Division I. Freshman Caeley Lordemann is the only other Bluejay with a double-digit point total (four goals, two assists).
• Offensively, the Musketeers have been led by Dewey, who has scored seven goals and recorded four assists for 18 total points. Dewey's point and goal totals each rank seventh in the BIG EAST in their respective categories. As a team, Xavier's 19 goals and 53 points rank seventh in the conference as well.
ST. JOHN'S VS. XAVIER - THE SERIES
St. John's and Xavier have met three times in the history of the two programs with St. John's holding a 3-0-0 record all-time.
The Red Storm has kept the Musketeers off the board in each of the three meetings, outscoring Xavier, 5-0.
Diana Poulin was the winning goalkeeper in all three matches, making three saves in 2013, two saves in 2014 and four saves in 2015.
