First Up! Women's Soccer Opens Season with Home Games vs. Hofstra, Niagara

Friday, August 17

Lewisburg, Pa.

1 p.m.

Bucknell University

Hofstra

Maddie Dano

First Up! Women's Soccer Opens Season with Home Games vs. Hofstra, Niagara

8/15/2018 12:21:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Setting the Scene
Who: Hofstra (0-0) at Bucknell (0-0)
When: Friday, Aug. 17, 1 p.m.
Where: Emmitt Field, Lewisburg, Pa.
TV: Stadium TV (Station Listing)
Live Webstream: Patriot League Network
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com

Setting the Scene
Who: Niagara (0-0) at Bucknell (0-0)
When: Sunday, Aug. 19, 12 p.m.
Where: Emmitt Field, Lewisburg, Pa.
Live Webstream: Patriot League Network
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com

About the Bison

The Bucknell women's soccer team kicks off its 29th varsity season on Friday against reigning Colonial Athletic Association champion Hofstra. The Bison will remain at home on Sunday to face Niagara at noon. Both games will be streamed on the Patriot League Network at PatriotLeague.TV, while Friday's game will also be a Stadium over-the-air game, with television affiliates around the country picking up the feed.
Bucknell is the two-time defending Patriot League champion. The Bison captured Patriot League regular-season and tournament titles in 2016, and then last year as the No. 2 seed defeated Navy 3-2 in Annapolis to repeat as PL champs. Including the last two seasons, Bucknell has now appeared in the NCAA Tournament four times.
This will be a bit of a new-look squad, as the Bison graduated six starters from last year's team, including four of the top six scorers and two starting backs. Among the losses is former All-American Kendall Ham, who totaled 41 career goals, and fellow All-Patriot Leaguers Karli Cirovski, Jackie Ham and Meghan Holtz.
Despite losing 23 of its 35 goals from last season, Bucknell does have plenty of experience returning, particularly on the back line. Team co-captains Maddie Dano and Ali Russo will anchor the back four, and another senior, Riley Coopersmith, moves from midfield to left back this year. Last year's defense posted a school-record six straight shutout victories in one stretch. Sophomores Alex Catanzarite (3-4-10) and Bri Kropinack (3-2-8) both scored big goals for the Bison last year and will help spearhead the attack in 2018.
Bucknell has a very difficult non-conference schedule this year, including five games against teams that played in the NCAA Tournament a year ago in Hofstra, Virginia, Monmouth, Saint Francis (Pa.) and Princeton. Those five teams combined for a 69-25-12 record last season, and two of them (Virginia and Princeton) lost to eventual national runner-up UCLA in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8, respectively. Virginia is ranked eighth and Princeton 13th in the United Soccer Coaches Preseason Poll.
Head coach Kelly Cook is back for her fourth season at the helm of the Bison. Cook is 39-17-5 (.680) overall and 21-4-2 (.815) against Patriot League competition in her first three seasons, with the last two resulting in league championships.
Bucknell was picked fourth in the Patriot League Preseason Poll. The Bison received two first-place votes and tallied 118 points in the poll, trailing Navy (154), Boston University (142) and Colgate (125).

About Hofstra/Series History

Bucknell gets a tough test right out of the gate, as Hofstra will likely be one of the top teams on the 2018 schedule. The Pride went 15-4-2 overall and a perfect 9-0-0 in the CAA last season. After falling in overtime to Yale on Sept. 4, they did not lose again until a 1-0 setback at Auburn in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Hofstra is the clear preseason favorite in the CAA, and senior defender Madeline Anderson was named CAA Co-Preseason Player of the Year after being picked the league's Defensive Player of the Year in 2017. Sophomore Bella Richards joined Anderson on the Preseason All-CAA Team.
The Pride conceded only three goals in conference play and tallied 11 shutouts last season.
Bucknell and Hofstra have met just once previously, a 4-2 Pride win on Long Island in the 2014 season opener. All six goals came in a wild first half. Brigit Falcon scored just 1:55 into the season for Bucknell, but Hofstra ripped off four straight goals before then-freshman Jackie Ham made it 4-2 in the 36th minute.

About Niagara/Series History

Sunday's game will be the season opener for Niagara, which was picked to finish eighth out of 11 teams in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Preseason Poll. Monmouth, where Bucknell will play next Friday, was picked No. 1 unanimously.
The Purple Eagles went 7-9-3 overall and 3-6-1 in the MAAC a year ago. They ousted crosstown rival Canisius in penalty kicks in the first round of the MAAC Tournament, but then fell to eventual champion Monmouth 1-0 in the quarterfinals on a goal in the 84th minute.
Niagara returns three of its top four point scorers from last season in Kelsey Araujo (4-2-10), Hailey Bicknell (3-4-10) and Bayley Sullivan (2-3-7). Despite finishing with a sub-.500 record, the Purple Eagles were only outscored 23-22 in 19 games.
Bucknell and Niagara will also be meeting for just the second time. The Bison topped the Purple Eagles 3-1 in Buffalo in the 1998 season opener. Down 1-0 at the half, Bucknell scored three straight in the second half, with the goals coming from Katie McElligott, Alyssa Chandler and Lindsay Slomer.

Up Next

Bucknell hits the road next weekend, taking on a pair of 2017 NCAA Tournament participants. The Bison travel to Monmouth on Friday night, and then travel to Charlottesville for a first-ever matchup with Virginia on Sunday afternoon.

Season Preview

Below is a more in-depth look at the 2018 Bucknell women's soccer team.

When the final horn sounded at the end of a hard-fought loss to No. 2 seed West Virginia in last fall's NCAA Tournament, the Bucknell women's soccer program said farewell to arguably the finest senior class in team history. Carolyn Casey, Karli Cirovski, Jackie Ham, Kendall Ham, Meghan Holtz, Maddie Mulford and Gabi Rosenfeld departed with a school-record 49 career victories (49-25-7) and a Patriot League mark of 25-8-3. They qualified for the postseason all four years, made it to two PL finals, won a regular-season and two tournament championships, and made it to two NCAA Tournaments. Five of the seven members of the class combined for 13 All-Patriot League citations.

But as the calendar flips to 2018, Bison head coach Kelly Cook is more focused on who is back in Orange & Blue, and while she concedes that the graduation losses were certainly significant, Cook feels that she has a talented young team that is ready to write its own story.

"I am really excited for this group," said Cook. "I see great potential in a lot of players who have not seen a lot of minutes yet. Where we lack in game experience, I see tremendous opportunities for talented players to step into some of those open spots."

Senior Maddie Dano and junior Ali Russo will skipper this year's squad while anchoring the team's back four. The duo has combined for 84 appearances and 77 starts, and they have provided excellent leadership on a new-look squad.

"We have great leadership and great trust in Maddie and Ali," said Cook. "We can still play our attacking style of soccer, knowing that we have great leadership in the back."

Last year's championship team was well-prepared for the Patriot League schedule by playing a daunting array non-conference foes that included the likes of Duke, Tennessee, Princeton, Syracuse, Saint Joseph's and William & Mary. It's more of the same in 2018, as five of the team's nine non-conference opponents played in the NCAA Tournament last season. Hofstra (15-4-2), Monmouth (15-4-2), Virginia (13-6-4), Saint Francis (10-8-3) and Princeton (16-3-1) all made NCAA appearances while combining for a 69-25-12 record. Virginia and Princeton, two road opponents for the Bison, went deep into the NCAA Tournament last year and are ranked in the national polls at the start of this season.

"We expect the Patriot League to be strong again this year, and playing a tough non-conference schedule will help prepare us for the demands of league play," said Cook, who has lost only four of 27 league matches in her first three years at Bucknell. "We have some really difficult challenges with five returning NCAA teams, and we also want to avenge losses to Saint Joseph's and William Mary, who also have very good teams."

Taking a look at the returning Bucknell squad from back to front, goalkeeper is a position where the preseason competition for playing time will continue into the regular season. A pair of juniors -- Theresa Adu-Attobrah and Dani Kaufman -- are the frontrunners for the starting spot, with freshman Raegan Dunwoodie also in the mix as she improves each day while adjusting to the college level. Kaufman started 19 games last season, posting 10 wins and an .813 save percentage. Kaufman suffered a foot injury in the first half of Bucknell's Patriot League Tournament semifinal game against Boston University, and Adu-Attobrah came on in relief and performed very well the rest of the way. She saw out the 1-0 win over the Terriers, and then two days later was the winning keeper in the 3-2 triumph over Navy in the Patriot League final. Adu-Attobrah made eight saves in the 3-0 loss to West Virginia in the NCAA Tournament.

"It's been a great battle this preseason for the goalkeeper position," said Cook. "Each of them has different strengths and weaknesses, and they will continue to battle for starts."

The aforementioned co-captains will occupy two key spots in the back four. Russo returns to her right back position, while Dano does the same at center back. Senior Riley Coopersmith moved from midfield to left back in the spring and has looked sharp in that new role, giving the Bison even more experience on the back line. The newcomer there will be freshman Claire Mensi, a six-footer from Katonah, New York, who will line up centrally next to Dano. Mensi has a booming leg and figures to be a key player on set pieces.

Seniors Camille Andrews and Melissa MacPherson, along with sophomore Chloe Christakos, give the Bison good depth in the back.

"It is comforting knowing that we have two seniors and two captains in the back four," said Cook. "We not only have a great deal of leadership back there, but they are all strong defenders who complement each other very well."

Senior Carly Baggott, who scored a huge game-winning goal in the 90th minute against Lafayette last season, will be the veteran of the midfield unit in Cook's 4-3-3 setup. Sophomore Alex Catanzarite burst onto the scene a year ago and produced three goals and four assists, highlighted by a late game-winner against Boston University in the Patriot League semifinals. Catanzarite will continue in her attacking center midfield role, while freshman Holly Burns will likely be the third starting midfielder on opening day.

Cook has quite a bit of midfield depth at her disposal, and she can rotate in sophomores Sarah Hazard and Tia Zajec, or freshman Alana Carlucci and Hunter Matson.

The forward positions are also wide open, with a total of nine forwards battling for playing time. Cook figures she will take advantage of non-conference play to try different combinations as the Bison look to account for the loss of all-conference snipers Kendall Ham and Maddie Mulford.

Seniors Shelby Roberts and Casey Gray, juniors Gabby Bair and Bailey Hurst, and sophomore Bri Kropinack have the most experience up top. Sophomore Lilly Courts moves from outside back to forward this season, and freshmen Kate Henesey and Emilene Parham are two exciting newcomers.

"We have a wide blend of experience and styles at the forward position," said Cook. "There has been some really good competition, and we are looking to see who steps up and can score goals for us."