By Leighton Schneider
Fordham came just one game shy of an Atlantic 10 Championship. (The Ram Archives)
The Fordham women’s soccer teams’ remarkable season came to a close on Sunday afternoon in the Atlantic 10 Women’s Soccer Championship. The team was picked to finish 11th in the Atlantic 10 in the preseason coaches poll. The Rams fell to the Duquesne Dukes 2-0 in the Championship game. Despite outshooting the Dukes 11-7, including 8-3 on goal, the team could not find the back of the net.
Fordham got their first chance in the eighth minute. Sophomore midfielder Natalie Sims sent a cross into the box, where junior forward Nicol Natale found herself open and tried a volley that was stopped by Duquesne junior goalkeeper Vanessa Perdomo.
Only 30 seconds later, senior midfielder Ivana Lahcanski took a shot from outside of the eighteen-yard box that deflected off of a defender, but Perdomo made a diving stop in front of the right-side post.
Head coach Jessica Clinton thought that the loss, while disappointing, showed the team what they are capable of.
“We were really close and I think that’s the disappointment from the players, how close they got,” said Clinton. “From staff point of view, we’re so proud of how far they’ve come. At first, our goal was just to make it into the A-10s. Then once we realized our bracket and how we felt going through the season, we felt good about making it into the finals and we believed that we could win it.”
Fordham continued to get their chances in the second half. They could not find a way to get the ball past the Dukes goalkeeper, though.
In the 65th minute, freshman midfielder Brooke Salmon sent a ball into the six-yard box, where redshirt-senior forward Kristina Maksuti headed it down, but Perdomo made another miraculous save.
Graduate-student midfielder Jessica Widmann got the next chance for the Rams in the 66th minute. Widmann got a pass from Maksuti and then one-timed the ball toward the upper left corner of the goal. Perdomo made a diving one-handed save to keep the game scoreless.
Duquesne got its first goal in the 77th minute following a corner kick taken by junior midfielder Maddie Layman. After landing in the middle of the eighteen-yard box, freshman midfielder Abby Losco fired it past junior goalkeeper Megan Fitzgerald.
The Rams last chance to tie the game came in the 83rd minute. A corner kick from junior defender Brianna Blunck found sophomore defender Rachel Collage, but Perdomo once again made the save.
The Dukes scored their second goal in the 85th minute after Fitzgerald gave the ball away while attempting to clear it away. Duquesne sophomore midfielder Linnea Faccenda scored from 30 yards out.
Widmann, Blunck and junior defender Nicole Bates were named to the All-Championship team.
Fitzgerald set the Fordham single-season record for the most minutes played (1885), wins (12) and shutouts (9). Her goals against was the second lowest in Fordham history at 0.91.
Widmann finished tied for third in the league in points with 29, second in goals with 12 and added five assists. She and Maksuti tied for second in the league with five game-winning goals each.
The Rams will return 20 of the 27 players from this year’s team next season.
With so many returning players, Coach Clinton believes this experience will show the team what it takes to have so much success during the season.
“We can take away how much hard work and effort the team put in to get there,” said Clinton. “I think it was a rewards system to see how hard they worked, how they got here and how it came to fruition, because they had never been there.”
The Rams finished the season at 13-7-2, the second most wins in team history, including 11 shutouts, the most in one season.
