St. John’s Falls to No. 19 Xavier on Sunday

Sunday, October 15

Cincinnati, Ohio (Corcoran Field)

1 p.m.

St. John's University

3-4-18-5-3; BIGEAST

No. 19 Xavier

4-0-311-2-3; BIGEAST

St. John's

Xavier

10/15/2023 3:21:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Goalkeeper Maria O’Sullivan logged seven saves despite the setback

CINCINNATI, Ohio – The St. John's women's soccer team dropped its Sunday contest to No. 19 Xavier, 3-0, at Corcoran Field.

Despite the setback, goalkeeper Maria O'Sullivan played exceptionally in net, making seven saves to match her season high.

Defender Frederique St.-Jean led all Johnnies with three shot attempts while Ava Collins, Jessica Garziano and Athina Sofroniou each tallied two apiece.

O'Sullivan made a slew of stops and clears on Xavier (11-2-3, 4-0-3 BIG EAST) to open the match, including a point-blank diving save on Samantha Wiehe in the fourth minute, followed by another quality chance from Kennedy Clark turned aside by the Red Storm keeper at 9:29.

The 19^th-ranked team in the country continued to apply pressure over the next seven minutes, yet St. John's (8-5-3, 3-4-1 BIG EAST) stood tall and booted away all of the Musketeers' chances through the early going. However, Xavier broke through in the 18^th minute as Olivia Lawson found the back of the net to take a 1-0 lead.

The Johnnies did not back down from Xavier over the next 18 minutes. The Red Storm netminder came up with a crucial save in the 29^th minute after Sonia Vargas found open space deep in the box, but O'Sullivan came off her line and pushed aside the opportunity for her fifth save of the contest to that point.

Xavier scored again in the 37^th minute as Grace Blumfeldt doubled the Musketeers' advantage, 2-0.

The Red Storm nearly cut its deficit in half before the buzzer, seeing Sofroniou rip a 20-yard shot from outside the box that skimmed the top of the crossbar at 38:06. The Dix Hills, N.Y., native posed another threat just 2:42 later with a set-piece screamer that went wide of the cage.

St. John's battled through Xavier's pressure during the first 15 minutes of the second half, staving off four corner-kick opportunities and allowing just two shots over that span. The Musketeers went on to finish the match with 12 corners in total.

Midway through the frame, the Red Storm found a rhythm in its attacking third, seeing a pair of corner set pieces from Garizano meet the head of St.-Jean at the back post, but both were pushed just outside of the frame.

Xavier's Madison Ayson knocked home the final goal of the contest in the 86^th minute, taking a 3-0 lead.

The Johnnies tried to break up the clean sheet in the final 96 seconds, seeing a prime shot opportunity from Scoma taken at the top of the 18-yard box stopped by goalkeeper Abby Weller to preserve the shutout.

St. John's will rest up before heading back to the Midwest to face Marquette on Sunday, Oct. 22 at Valley Fields for a 2 p.m. match.