Women's Soccer Continues Homestand vs. UMBC Thursday, No. 7 Pitt Sunday

Thursday, August 22

Lewisburg, Pa.

7 p.m.

Bucknell University

UMBC

Photo by: Lianne Garrahan

Women's Soccer Continues Homestand vs. UMBC Thursday, No. 7 Pitt Sunday

8/21/2024 11:36:00 AM | Women's Soccer

UMBC (0-1) at Bucknell (1-0-1)
When: Thursday, Aug. 22, 7 p.m.
Where: Emmitt Field at Holmes Stadium, Lewisburg, Pa.
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com

#7 Pittsburgh (1-0-1) at Bucknell (1-0-1)
When: Sunday, Aug. 25, 1 p.m.
Where: Emmitt Field at Holmes Stadium, Lewisburg, Pa.
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com

Bucknell at a Glance

Bucknell's four-game season-opening homestand continues this week when UMBC and No. 7 Pittsburgh visit Emmitt Field for a Thursday/Sunday set.
The Bison got out to a solid start last week, beating La Salle 2-1 last Thursday before settling for a 1-1 draw with Delaware in a weather-delayed match on Sunday.
The Bison needed only a minute and 51 seconds to produce the first goal of the season. Henna Andican was on the receiving end of Katie Schiano's cross before the campaign was even two minutes old. Later in the first half, Andican drew a penalty and Teresa Deda converted from the spot for a 2-0 lead, and then Bucknell held on after the Explorers scored a good goal in the 60th minute. La Salle went 8-1-1 in the Atlantic 10 last season and fell to Saint Louis in the A-10 Tournament final.
Sunday's match against Delaware was halted by lightning with just over two minutes to play in the first half. After a delay of more than two hours, play resumed and moments later freshman Katie Connell slotted a shot through the goalkeeper's legs for her first collegiate goal. The Bison seemed to have the 1-0 lead managed well, but with 2:04 remaining a simple ball played over the top from beyond the halfway line was knocked in by Paige Kenton to help the Blue Hens salvage a point.
Schiano and Connell both received Patriot League honors on Monday. Schiano, who assisted on the Andican and Connell goals, earned PL Defensive Player of the Week honors, while Connell was tabbed as the PL Rookie of the Week.
Andican scored a career-high six goals last season and now has seven in her career.
Deda now has 14 career goals, and her assist in the La Salle game was the 30th of her career. She needs five more to match Hall-of-Famer Lisa Gibbons' school record, which has been in the books for 30 years.
Junior Jess Benattar and sophomore Dylan Zednik each earned a start in goal last week, marking their collegiate debuts. Benattar made two saves in the win over La Salle, and Zednik stopped two shots in the Delaware draw.
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.
Seniors Deda and Schiano both received major preseason awards. Deda was selected as the Patriot League Preseason Player of the Year, and she was also one of 44 players selected to the Hermann Trophy Watch List. Schiano was tabbed as the PL Preseason Defensive Player of the Year.
Deda is a three-time First Team All-Patriot League selection, and she captured the PL Midfielder of the Year award in each of the last two campaigns. Schiano (Second Team), Andican (Second Team), and Paige Temple (Third Team) are also returning All-Patriot League honorees.
Bucknell has seven of its 11 starters back in 2024. The biggest graduation hits came in the back of the formation, where two-time Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Year Jenna Hall and center backs Brooke Tracey (First Team All-PL and PL Scholar-Athlete of the Year) and Eva Frankovic have graduated. The Bison also lost a strong two-way player in winger Hannah Stuck.
Hall (South Carolina), Tracey (Maryland), and Stuck (West Virginia) are all using their fifth years of eligibility playing for major-conference programs as graduate students.
Schiano, senior midfielder Kelley Francis, and senior defender Olivia DeConinck are this year's team captains.
Bucknell scored 34 goals in 21 games last season, and 30 of those goals are back this season. Deda (9-9-27), Andican (6-9-21), and Temple (4-4-12) all ranked among the league's top scorers, with Deda and Andican sharing the Patriot League assist title.
Other returning goal scorers include Francis (3), Reese Evans (3), Meghan White (2), Schiano (1), and Riley Hayes (1).
Deda ranks fourth among all active Division I players in career assists. The only players with more are Texas' Lexi Missimo (51) and Trinity Byars (35), and Auburn's Anna Haddock (32). Missimo and Haddock are both in their fifth years.
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.
The Bison went 8-0-2 at Emmitt Field last season and are unbeaten in their last 17 home matches (10-0-7) dating back to a loss to Princeton in 2022. Over the last four seasons, the Bison are 11-1-7 at Emmitt Field against league foes, with the only loss a 1-0 defeat to Navy in the COVID-modified 2021 spring season.
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 84-58-25 (.578) and a Patriot League mark of 45-18-14 (.675). She has the highest winning percentage of any coach in program history, and she needs 10 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.

UMBC at a Glance

The Retrievers needed two days to complete their season opener, as Sunday's home match with Towson was halted in the 14th minute due to lightning. The teams returned on Monday to resume play, and the Tigers prevailed 1-0 on Rebecca Groseibl's goal in the 39th minute. UMBC finished with an 18-11 shot advantage and put 10 of those attempts on goal.
UMBC coach Rick Stanton has a dozen newcomers on the roster as the program looks to improve on last season's 3-11-4 record. UMBC went 0-4-4 in the America East.
Last year's team scored 17 goals in 18 matches but conceded 39. Meghan McKye (5G, 2A), Natasha Munro (4G) and Lola Negrete (6A). McKye and Munro are back this season as graduate students.
McKye was a Second Team All-America East selection last season.
Senior Abby Cowles started in goal against Towson and recorded four saves. Cowles started 14 games last season and led the America East with 5.14 saves per game.
UMBC sophomore Emily Hiney and Bucknell sophomore Ashley Kozlowski were classmates at St. Anthony's High School on Long Island.

The Bucknell-UMBC Series

Bucknell is 6-4-1 in 11 all-time meetings with UMBC. The teams last squared off in 2015, a 1-1 draw in Baltimore.
The first matchup came in 1991, when UMBC won 4-2 on its home field. Bucknell returned the favor with a 3-2 win the following season.
The Bison won five straight matchups from 2007-12, but UMBC is 2-0-1 in the last three meetings.
In the most recent game in 2015, Sarah Bresette scored in the 34th minute off a feed from Talia Szatkowski to give the Bison a 1-0 lead, but UMBC equalized in the 58th minute on a goal from Gabby Boehmer. Jessica Ratner made six saves in goal for Bucknell, including a big one on a breakaway in overtime.
The last meeting at Emmitt Field came in 2014, with UMBC winning 2-1 despite being outshot 19-5. After a long weather delay, the Retrievers scored twice in the first 23 minutes, the second of which was an own goal. Evelyn Nicinski scored in the 88th minute for the Bison.

Pittsburgh at a Glance

The Panthers are ranked No. 7 in the United Soccer Coaches poll, and they came out of the opening weekend with a 0-0 away draw against No. 14 Georgia and a 2-1 home win over Duquesne. Pitt will host Buffalo on Thursday before making its first trip to Lewisburg since 2019 on Sunday.
Sarah Schupansky (64') and Lucia Wells (85') scored against Duquesne on Sunday. The Panthers led 2-0 until conceding in the 88th minute.
Pitt is coming off its first-ever NCAA Elite Eight run. The 2023 Panthers finished 17-6-1 overall and 6-3-1 in the ACC, setting team records for total wins and ACC wins. They defeated Duke and North Carolina for the first time ever, and then won two games in the NCAA Tournament before falling to eventual national champion Florida State.
Randy Waldrum's squad returns five double-digit point scorers from last season, led by Schupansky who piled up 36 points from 11 goals and 14 assists. The Pittsburgh native was the first Panther ever to receive First Team All-ACC honors, and she now has 26 goals and 28 assists in her career. Other top point-producers were Samiah Phiri (11-4-26), Ellie Coffield (8-4-20), Deborah Abiodun (6-3-15), and Keera Melenhorst (3-6-12).
Junior Ellie Breech went the distance in goal in both games to start the season. She tallied four saves against Georgia and three against Duquesne. Breech started every game last season and recorded a .740 save percentage and a 1.15 goals-against average.

The Bucknell-Pittsburgh Series

Bucknell is 2-3 all-time against the Panthers. The Bison won the first two meetings, 3-0 at home in 2000 and 1-0 in Pittsburgh in 2001. Pitt has taken the last three, however, including a 5-0 verdict last season.
The Bison ran into a red-hot Pitt side last season. The 21st-ranked Panthers piled up 32 shots and found the back of the net five times. Schupansky scored twice and Phiri, Abiodun, and Anna Bout once each.
The last meeting at Emmitt Field was a good battle early in the 2019 season. The Panthers prevailed 1-0 in double overtime, as Amanda West scored the golden goal in the 101st minute. Kaylee Donnelly had a brilliant game in goal for the Bison with 12 saves.
Kristie Simon logged two goals and an assist in Bucknell's 3-0 win in the first-ever series meeting in 2000. A year later in Pittsburgh, Megan Farrell's 85th-minute strike was the difference. Laurie Purse was the winning goalkeeper in both of those shutout victories.

The Road Ahead

After four straight home games to start the season, the Bison will play their next five on the road.
Next up is a visit to George Washington next Thursday. The Bison defeated the Revolutionaries 3-1 at home last season on goals from Henna Andican, Reese Evans, and Teresa Deda.