Women's Soccer Visits Lafayette Friday Evening

Bucknell (6-5-1, 3-1-0 PL) at Lafayette (3-7-2, 1-2-1 PL)
When: Friday, Oct. 7, 7 p.m.
Where: Oaks Stadium, Easton, Pa.
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: GoLeopards.com

Bucknell at a Glance

Bucknell continues Patriot League play with a Friday-night matchup with Lafayette. At 3-1 in the conference, the Bison enter the weekend in a tie for second place with Boston University, just one point behind 3-0-1 Army. Lafayette is in seventh place at 1-2-1, two points behind 2-2 Navy and Lehigh for one of the final Patriot League Tournament berths.
Bucknell has won three straight Patriot League games after starting conference play with a loss at Navy. The Bison have rung up eight goals in the last two league encounters, a 3-0 win over Colgate and a 5-1 rout of Holy Cross.
Saturday's game against the Crusaders featured a second-half explosion from the Bison. Holy Cross tied the game at 1-1 in the 60th minute, but five minutes later Abby Gearhart scored to launch a Bucknell run of four goals in 10 minutes. Gearhart added another goal in the surge for her second career brace. Teresa Deda scored her first of the season off a Gearhart assist, and Hannah Stuck finished off the scoring in the 76th minute.
That 10-minute stretch marked Bucknell's quickest goal-scoring flurry in 20 years. On Sept. 11, 2002,
Freshman Henna Andican tallied her second goal of the season just 18 seconds before halftime to give the Bison a 1-0 lead. Andican later assisted on both of Gearhart's goals, and on Monday she was named the Patriot League Rookie of the Week for the second week in a row.
Gearhart also repeated as the Patriot League Midfielder of the Week. She moved into a tie for the Patriot League goal-scoring lead with Loyola's Baylee DeSmit with five apiece. That total matches Gearhart's career high from last season and gives her 13 career tallies. Of Gearhart's five goals this season, four have been game-winners. The Bison are 4-0 when she scores a goal.
Gearhart is second in the Patriot League in points with 12, one behind DeSmit.
Freshman Meghan White has started every game this season at left back, and her assist on Andican's goal on Saturday was her first career point.
In addition to Gearhart, Rylee Donaldson (3), Andican (2), Reese Evans (2), and Stuck (2) are also multiple goal-scorers this season.
Deda recorded her Patriot League-leading sixth assist of the season against Holy Cross. After leading the Patriot League with 12 helpers as a freshman in 2021, Deda is already up to fourth place on Bucknell's career assists chart with 18, just 12 games into her sophomore year. She needs one more to catch Jennifer Dervarics for third place. Deda was named the Patriot League Preseason Midfielder of the Year prior to the season.
Deda has also attempted the most shots (36) of any player in the Patriot League.
Goalkeeper Jenna Hall ranks third in the Patriot League with a 1.06 goals-against average.
There are only five field players in the entire Patriot League who have played every minute of every game this season, and four of them will be on the field in Easton on Friday. Center back Brooke Tracey is the lone Bison who has played all 1,080 minutes. Lafayette has three who have done it: Katrina Santelli, Rory Schauder, and Lauren Cunningham. The fifth is Lehigh's Erin Keefe.
Bucknell is the defending Patriot League champion. Seeded fourth in the 2021 league tournament after being picked ninth in the preseason poll, Bucknell posted consecutive shutouts of Lehigh (2-0), Navy (1-0 OT), and Boston University (1-0) to claim the fifth conference title in team history. The Bison then held their own in a 2-0 loss to top-seeded Rutgers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Scarlet Knights later advanced all the way to the College Cup semifinals.
Bucknell last year became the first team to win three Patriot League Tournament games since the league expanded to a six-team format in 2013. Only teams seeded No. 1 or 2 — and thus earning a bye straight into the semifinals — had ever won the title.
Bucknell was also the only team in the country seeded fourth or lower to win its conference tournament. Of the 28 Division I conference tournaments, 25 were won by No. 1 or 2 seeds. Michigan in the Big Ten and Memphis in the AAC won as No. 3 seeds, and Bucknell did it as a No. 4.
Seniors Leanne Engemann and Petie Nassetta are the team co-captains in 2022.
Kelly Cook is in her eighth season on the Bison sideline. Cook owns a 69-54-14 (.555) overall record at Bucknell, including a 38-17-8 (.667) mark in Patriot League play. Cook knows the Patriot League very well, as she was a two-year captain and three-time Second Team All-Patriot League selection at Colgate, where she recorded 27 goals and 23 assists in her career. She ranked in the top 10 in program history in career points (77) and assists. As a junior in 2004, Cook (then Kelly Kuss) was named Patriot League Tournament MVP after leading the Raiders to the league title, and then her team knocked off Arizona in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, marking the first NCAA win in school and league history.

Lafayette at a Glance

The Leopards are 1-2-1 in Patriot League play but are coming off a couple of good results. After dropping its first two league encounters to Boston University (2-1) and Lehigh (2-0), Lafayette earned a 2-2 road draw at American followed by a 1-0 home win over Loyola last Saturday.
The Leopards are 3-2 at home this season and 0-5-2 on the road.
Katrina Santelli, the younger sister of former Bison Mary Santelli, scored the lone goal in the Loyola game in the 34th minute. Lafayette was outshot 11-4 in that game but received a combined five saves from the goalkeeping duo of Lindsay Dewar and Natalie Neumann.
Lafayette has been outscored 21-11 on the season but has scored goals in eight of its 12 games.
Sara Oswald leads the squad with four goals, including two in league play against Boston University and American. Santelli and April McDonald have two goals apiece, and McDonald also has a team-high two assists.
Dewar and Neumann have split the GK duties in every game this season. Neumann has started 10 of the 12 games. She has conceded 13 goals compared to eight for Dewar.
Lafayette went 5-10 overall and 3-6 in the Patriot League last season. The wins were good ones over Army, Holy Cross, and Colgate, all in succession, but a 3-1 loss at Navy on the final day of the season eliminated the Leopards from postseason contention.

The Bucknell-Lafayette Series

Bucknell holds a 23-7-3 record in a series that dates back to 1990.
The Bison have had the better of the recent series, going 16-1-2 in the last 19 meetings. That run includes an 11-match winning streak from 2004-14.
Bucknell won the most recent meeting in Easton, 2-1 in 2019. The two teams kicked off the spring 2021 slate with a scoreless draw in a game that was hosted by Lafayette at the United Sports complex in Downingtown, and then the Bison won 1-0 last season at Emmitt Field.
Rylee Donaldson scored the goal in last year's game in Lewisburg. It came in the 30th minute, and the Bison went on to win 1-0 with a 26-7 shot advantage.
Abby Gearhart had a goal and an assist in the win at Lafayette in 2019. She converted a penalty kick in the 18th minute, and then just 70 seconds later her free kick was headed home by Chloe Christakos.
Even though these two teams have squared off in every one of Bucknell's 32 varsity seasons, they have met just once in the postseason. That was a 2-0 Bison win at Emmitt Field in the 2016 Patriot League Tournament semifinals. The Bison would go on to defeat Boston University two days later to claim the championship.

The Road Ahead

Bucknell has a two-game week next week, with Loyola coming to Lewisburg on Wednesday followed by a trip to Boston University for a rematch of last year's Patriot League championship game.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Henna Andican

Chloe Christakos

Teresa Deda

Rylee Donaldson

Leanne Engemann

Reese Evans

Abby Gearhart

Jenna Hall

Petie Nassetta

Mary Santelli

Hannah Stuck

Brooke Tracey

Meghan White