FAIRMONT, W.Va. – The Notre Dame College women's soccer team (4-7-3, 4-6-3 MEC) hit the road to face Fairmont State University (6-6-2, 6-5-2 MEC) on Wednesday evening, in an important second meeting between the two schools. Their first meeting was held on Mueller Field back on Sept. 19, when Notre Dame got the best of Fairmont State 3-1. Coming into today's action, FSU (17 points) held the third and final playoff spot in the MEC North Division over NDC (15 points) who was seated fourth by a narrow two points. During the match Fairmont State was determined to prevail, and did so by defeating Notre Dame 3-1.
In the first half, the FSU Falcons jumped out to the early lead with a 17
th minute goal from Angelina Kaylor. FSU would tack on another goal in the 32
nd minute from the team leader in goals scored, Kiera Kuzinski. NDC's
Sammy Salatino would find room to record three shots and two on goal in the half, but to no avail. Moreover,
Jordan Pasalaqua saw a relentless nine shots on goal in the first stanza and was successfully able to save seven.
In the second half, NDC was able to generate four shots on goal, including a goal scored by
Madison Marino in the 79
th minute, delivered perfectly by
Louisa Follert, to cut the FSU lead in half. For Marino it is her first collegiate goal scored to go along with Follert's second assist on the season. However, no more than 30 seconds later, Fairmont State's Jessica Schneider capitalized on a broken play to push the lead back to two and seal the game for FSU.
In total, NDC shot the ball 11 times and registered eight shots on target, with three from Marino (career-high), another three from Salatino, and one from
Kalie Blaising and Follert. Notre Dame generated two corner kicks, while Pasalaqua sent back ten FSU shots, as the Madison High School product was under fire all match long. Fairmont State countered with 18 shots and 13 on goal, to go along with two corner kicks and seven saves from Taylor Kennedy.
Notre Dame College will be back in action this Sunday Oct. 31 at noon for senior day when the Falcons welcome Glenville State University to Mueller Field.