Wednesday, October 16
Lewisburg, Pa.
7 p.m.
Bucknell University
vs
Loyola University
Photo by: Lianne Garrahan
Women's Soccer Hosts Loyola, Visits Boston University in Pivotal PL Stretch
10/15/2024 7:19:00 PM | Women's Soccer
Loyola (5-3-5, 1-1-3 PL) at Bucknell (8-3-2, 4-1 PL)
When: Wednesday, Oct. 16, 7 p.m.
Where: Emmitt Field at Holmes Stadium, Lewisburg, Pa.
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com
Bucknell (8-3-2, 4-1 PL) at Boston University (2-7-5, 2-0-3 PL)
When: Sunday, Oct. 20, 1 p.m.
Where: Nickerson Field, Boston, Mass.
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: GoTerriers.com
Bucknell at a Glance
When: Wednesday, Oct. 16, 7 p.m.
Where: Emmitt Field at Holmes Stadium, Lewisburg, Pa.
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com
Bucknell (8-3-2, 4-1 PL) at Boston University (2-7-5, 2-0-3 PL)
When: Sunday, Oct. 20, 1 p.m.
Where: Nickerson Field, Boston, Mass.
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: GoTerriers.com
Bucknell at a Glance
- A pivotal week lies ahead for the first-place Bison, who have a mid-week home date with a good Loyola side that features the Patriot League's top goal-scorer, followed by a long road trip to Boston to face the second-place Terriers.
- Last Friday was a productive one for the Bison, who took over sole possession of first place thanks to a 1-0 win at Navy and Loyola's 3-0 victory over previous co-leader Army. Bucknell sits atop the table with 12 points, followed by Army and Boston University with nine each. Lafayette (8), Holy Cross (7), Navy (7), Colgate (7), and Loyola (6) are all very much in the postseason picture with four league games remaining.
- The Bison turned in a complete 90 minutes last time out against Navy. Bucknell had a significant edge in possession and allowed only two shots on target all night against the Patriot League's highest scoring team (2.2 goals per game) coming in.
- Teresa Deda scored the game's only goal off an assist from Katie Connell in the 30th minute. It was Deda's team-leading seventh goal of the season to go along with six assists.
- Bucknell now has seven team shutouts this season, and junior goalkeeper Jess Benattar has five solo clean sheets. Benattar has played in 11 games this season, and she leads the Patriot League and ranks 12th nationally in GAA at 0.45. Her .857 save percentage (24 saves, 4 GA) is tied with Lafayette's Catherine Apker for the best in the league, and that figure also ranks 21st nationally.
- Bucknell has been stout defensively even with the introduction of a new starting goalkeeper (Benattar) and two first-time starters at center back (senior Laura Schmidt and sophomore Julia Palitti). The Bison have used the same back four in every game this season, with outside backs Katie Schiano and Meghan White flanking Schmidt and Palitti. Schiano was the PL Preseason Defensive Player of the Year.
- Bucknell and Loyola are tied for the league lead with a 0.92 team GAA. The Bison have scored eight goals and conceded only two in Patriot League play.
- The Bison started league play with wins over Colgate and American before falling 1-0 at home to Army. Bucknell had been unbeaten in 17 straight home games (11-0-6) against Patriot League opponents dating back to a 1-0 loss to Navy in the COVID-modified 2021 spring season.
- Deda assisted on all three goals in Bucknell's 3-1 win at American, giving her 35 career assists. That tied the Bucknell record, originally set by Hall-of-Famer Lisa Gibbons from 1991-94.
- Deda is tied with Navy's Amanda Graziano for the Patriot League lead with six assists this season. Deda is third in the league in goals with seven and in points with 20.
- Deda now ranks eighth in Bucknell history with 75 career points (20G, 35A). Deda was the Patriot League Preseason Midfielder of the Year, and she was also one of 44 players named to the 2024 Hermann Trophy Watch List. The Hermann Trophy is given to the national player of the year.
- Deda ranks fifth among all active Division I players in career assists. The only players with more are Texas' Lexi Missimo (59) and Trinity Byars (36), Pitt's Sarah Schupansky (43), and Auburn's Anna Haddock (42). Missimo and Haddock are both in their fifth years.
- The Bison have scored 18 goals in 13 games thus far. Deda leads the way with seven goals and six assists, and two-time Patriot League Rookie of the Week Katie Connell has four goals. Henna Andican, who is out with an injury, and Reese Evans have two goals each, and Hess, Kelley Francis, and Presley Sutter have one apiece.
- Bucknell has been shown only two yellow cards all season, with both coming at FDU on Sept. 15. The two yellows are tied for the fewest in the nation. Northern Arizona has also been cautioned just twice.
- Bucknell has captured three straight Patriot League championships, which is a rarity in the league's history. Before Bucknell, the most recent to do it was Boston University, which won titles in its first three seasons as a league member in 2013-15. Prior to that, it was Colgate winning six in a row from 1994-99 and three straight from 1990-92 during the league's infancy.
- The Bison are one of only seven Division I teams that have won at least their last three league titles. The other six are Memphis (AAC), Florida State (ACC), Saint Louis (A10), Georgetown (Big East), UC Irvine (Big West), and Milwaukee (Horizon).
- Bucknell was picked a close second behind Army West Point in the preseason poll, with third-place Boston University also just a few points back. While Army was the top seed in each of the last two Patriot League Tournaments, the Bison prevailed in penalty-kick shootouts at West Point in the finals both times. Bucknell also won the 2021 championship on the road, clipping Boston University 1-0.
- Bucknell finished 12-4-5 overall and 5-1-3 in the Patriot League last season. Seeded No. 2 in the Patriot League Tournament, the Bison defeated Boston University 3-1 in the semifinals and then outlasted Army in a penalty-kick shootout to claim the title.
- Bucknell faced a Big Ten opponent in the NCAA Tournament for the third year in a row, falling to Iowa 2-0 in overtime. It was a similar script as 2022 when the Bison and Ohio State played 90 scoreless minutes before the Buckeyes found the net late in overtime. This time it was the Hawkeyes scoring twice in the extra periods to swipe the first-round verdict.
- Head coach Kelly Cook is in her 10th season at Bucknell, and she has led the Bison to five league titles in her first nine years. Cook owns a career record of 91-62-26 (.581) and a Patriot League mark of 49-19-14 (.683). She has the highest winning percentage of any coach in program history, and she needs three more wins to equal Ben Landis for the most in team history.
- 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.
- The Greyhounds come to Lewisburg on a high note after routing then-first-place Army 3-0 in Baltimore last Friday. All three goals came in a seven-minute span in the second half. Adma Merzougui put Loyola on the board in the 52rd minute, and then Baylee DeSmit scored her 10th and 11 goals of the season soon after. The Greyhounds outshot Army 15-4 and conceded only one corner kick all night.
- That was Loyola's first Patriot League win of the season, but the Greyhounds did earn points from draws with Boston University (1-1), Lafayette (0-0), and Colgate (1-1), and they dropped a wild 4-3 affair at Navy.
- DeSmit's 11 goals are tied with Colgate's Ari Bezanson for the most in the Patriot League this season. The senior from Baltimore is the reigning Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year, and she earned her third Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week citation on Monday. DeSmit has goals in eight different games this year, including braces against Northern Colorado, Navy, and Army.
- DeSmit has had a hand in 14 of Loyola's 17 goals this season, scoring 11 herself and assisting on three others. Merzougui and Zoe Willis have scored two goals each, and Elizabeth Gallagher and Nele Raap have one apiece.
- Brigid Mulholland has started every game in goal and has 48 saves with 12 goals against, good for a 0.93 GAA and .800 save percentage. She has kept five clean sheets in her first year as a starter.
- Bucknell is 7-4-4 all-time against Loyola and 7-1-4 in the last 12 games.
- Loyola won the first three games of the series in 1992, 1993, and 2007. Bucknell won six straight meetings from 2013-18 and is 7-1-3 since the Greyhounds joined the Patriot League.
- Bucknell won 1-0 last season at the Ridley Athletic Complex, despite Loyola's 20-4 shot advantage. Paige Temple scored just over three minutes into the match, and Jenna Hall made eight saves on the way to her school-record 23rd career shutout. Three of those stops came in a frantic final minute, including a sensational diving save on Baylee DeSmit.
- In the last meeting at Emmitt Field in 2022, the game finished in a 0-0 draw after a sensational goalkeeper battle between Hall (8 saves) and Paige Sim (7 saves). The scoreless finish was not indicative of the action, as the two teams went end-to-end throughout much of the second half. There were a combined 17 shot attempts in the final 45 minutes, and Hall and Sim both tallied five second-half saves. It was Sim providing the highlights early in the half. She saved Teresa Deda's 55th-minute penalty kick, and then four minutes later she denied Petie Nassetta from point-blank range with a little help from defender Alex Searing sweeping the deflected shot off the goal line. DeSmit was a handful all night with a game-high seven shots, five of which were on target. Hall's three best saves all came on the Greyhounds' leading scorer, two of which she went up high to tip shots off the crossbar. The save of the night came in the 63rd minute, when DeSmit caught every bit of a volley on a bouncing ball in the box. Hall dove to her right and was able to palm away the hard shot.
- The Terriers are the only Patriot League team that has yet to lose a conference game, but at 2-0-3 they sit three points behind the 4-1 Bison. Boston University went 0-7-2 in non-conference games, but it came against a very difficult schedule.
- The Terriers have scored 19 goals in 14 matches, with Giulianna Gianino (7), Margy Porta (6), and Kaiya Stewart (3) accounting for 16 of the 19 goals.
- Gianino had the goal in Boston University's most recent game, a 1-1 draw at Lafayette. The Terriers outshot the Leopards 14-3 but needed that goal in the 75th minute to salvage a point.
- Porta recently had a four-game goal-scoring streak that was capped by a brace in a 6-1 rout of Lehigh.
- In goal, Celia Braun and Bridget Carr have both played in eight games and 630:00 minutes this season. The freshman Carr has started the last six games and has 27 saves with 10 goals against on the season.
- Boston University travels to Holy Cross on Wednesday before hosting the Bison.
- The Terriers were picked third in the Patriot League Preseason poll, behind only Army and Bucknell. Gianino, Natalie Godoy, and Eileen Solomon were all preseason All-PL picks.
- Bucknell holds an 8-5-3 edge in 16 all-time meetings, with six of those clashes coming in the postseason. Bucknell is 8-1-3 in the last 11 after the Terriers won the first four.
- These two teams have met six times in the last three seasons, including three times in the postseason.
- The Bison and Terriers met twice last season at Emmitt Field. In the Patriot League Tournament semifinals, Teresa Deda scored in the first five minutes of each half and Meghan White also scored in Bucknell's 3-1 win. Morgan Fagan scored a consolation goal for Boston University with 13 seconds left in the match.
- In last year's regular-season fixture, the Bison and Terriers finished in a 3-3 draw in the highest-scoring game in series history. Bucknell overcame an early goal and took the lead twice in the second half, only to see Boston University answer each time. Kelley Francis, Deda, and Paige Temple all scored for the Bison. Fagan scored twice and Margy Porta registered the game's final goal in the 78th minute.
- In the last meeting in Boston in 2022, Bucknell won 1-0 on Deda's goal just 4:22 into the match. The Bison limited the Terriers to just seven total shots in the game.
- A few weeks later, the two teams played 110 scoreless minutes in the Patriot League Tournament semifinals, and the Bison advanced 4-3 in penalty kicks. Jenna Hall made seven saves during regulation and overtime, and she even chipped in with a goal in the shootout. Rylee Donaldson ultimately notched the winning PK, setting off a pitch-storming from the large student crowd.
- These two teams also had a couple of tense battles during the 2021 season. With first place on the line late in the year, the Bison and Terriers played a scintillating 2-2 tie at Emmitt Field. They met again a few weeks later in the Patriot League championship match, and Bucknell prevailed 1-0 at Nickerson Field.
- In addition to the last three Patriot League Tournament results, Bucknell owns a couple of other memorable postseason wins over Boston University. The Bison downed the Terriers 2-1 on Cora Climo's overtime goal in the 2016 Patriot League championship game. One year later in Annapolis, Bucknell clipped the Terriers 1-0 in the PL semifinals, and then went on to beat Navy two days later to claim a second straight title.
- The 2016 game avenged Boston University's 1-0 win over Bucknell in the 2015 Patriot League final in Boston.
- After this week's two-game set, Bucknell will be down to just two regular-season dates. The Bison visit Lafayette on Oct. 26 before hosting Lehigh on Oct. 0.
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