2015 BIG EAST Regular Season Champs

On Oct. 30, 2015, the St. John's women's soccer team made history, as the Johnnies defeated Providence, 1-0, to secure the program's first BIG EAST regular season title.

After 88 minutes of scoreless action for both programs, former St. John's forward Shea Connors drew a penalty from 30 yards out, a pinnacle moment of the match.

"When the foul was called, I immediately knew it was going to be a really good opportunity for us," Connors said. "We spent countless hours on Tuesday nights at set-plays practice always perfecting our set pieces for opportunities like that foul. I was really confident in our chances of converting."

With the Johnnies in jeopardy of dropping as low as the three seed in the upcoming conference tournament, St. John's called upon the Red Storm's leading scorer, Rachel Daly.

"We had this play up our sleeve for a couple of years," Head Coach Ian Stone said. "The beauty of it was it freed Daly up. Having scored 49 goals in three seasons, she was pretty tightly marked otherwise."

The triple-threat of Daly, Morgan Tinari and Mikhaila Martinov lined up at the ball. After Daly and Tinari took decoy charges, Martinov played it down the right side of the box to a streaking Tinari. With the defense scrambling, Tinari crossed the ball perfectly in front of the net to Daly.

"When I passed the ball to Rach I honestly was just praying a lot," Tinari said. "I was trying to picture the ball and movement of the ball in the net. I always thought that if you could picture it happening, it meant that it is possible. In this case, we had done it before and I believed it could happen. I just wanted my pass to be perfect because this was the best way I could help my team in this moment."

Daly was waiting to redirect it with a header past the keeper to give the Johnnies a 1-0 advantage with under two minutes left on the clock.

"When she scored I didn't know what to think," Tinari said. "Our adrenaline was pumping so hard. I'm pretty sure I screamed so stinking loud and ran towards Rach and my teammates to just embrace them because I knew what it meant for us."

As Daly's goal slipped past the keeper, the Red Storm's bench erupted with joy.

"It was almost like a scene in a sports movie," Coach Stone said. "I knew that once we had scored that goal, in that manner, we would win the game. I think I made a defensive substitution or two, so I didn't have much time to think about much else."

Goalkeeper Diana Poulin and the Johnnies' backline managed to keep the Friars off the board over the final 69 seconds to seal the win.

"Obviously when you get a last-minute goal like that there is some sort of relief knowing you're so close to winning but a minute is also a lot of time for anyone to score again," said Poulin. "At that point especially, I knew I had to be smart in my decision making. We had to communicate as a team and just keep the ball away from our goal as best as possible. I can't remember those moments exactly, probably because of my adrenaline and nerves, but as that clock went down it definitely began to feel a whole lot sweeter."

Poulin's three-save shutout marked the 12th of the season for the Red Storm, building upon a school record that was broken earlier that year. It also marked the 31st win of Poulin's career, placing her second on the all-time wins list. Poulin capped off her Red Storm career with a program-high 43 victories.

In addition to the program's first regular-season conference title, the win was historic in a number of other ways. With the victory over the Friars, the Johnnies' improved to 15-2-1 on the year, breaking the school's record for the most wins in a single season.

Individually, Daly's goal was the 50th of her career, making her only the second player in St. John's history, men's or women's, to reach the half-century mark.

The Red Storm concluded the 2015 campaign with an overall record of 15-4-1, earning an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament for the third time in program history. St. John's 15 victories and 12 clean sheets that year are still the record today.

St. John's University Athletics

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