Heartbreaking loss to Principia ends Women's Soccer season

Heartbreaking loss to Principia ends Women's Soccer season
Box Score

Team Stats

November 5, 2014

St. Louis, Mo. - Fontbonne University women's soccer entered the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference for their 13th time in school history, this time as the second seed. The Griffins hosted third seed Principia College and fell 1-0. Fontbonne's 15-4-2 overall record ties the school record for wins in a season.

The Griffins were hot from the start with Fontbonne shooting just seconds into the game. A Griffin corner kick went straight through the hands of Principia's goalkeeper, but was outed by the Panther defense 15 minutes into the game.

Principia scored on a lob towards the goal which resulted in a high bounce. Panther Gabriela Martin headed the ball into the net for her 10th goal of the season.

Griffin goalkeeper Tayler Pulvirenti kept Fontbonne in the game several times and made a big diving save as Martin shot towards the left post later on a pass from the right side.

Fontbonne upped their offensive pressure in the second half outshooting Principia 9-3. An unusual amount of Griffin handballs slowed their momentum throughout the game. Fontbonne's Ashlynn Reiter had several great chances, but Kara Johnson came up with the saves (seven) for the Panthers. Pulvirenti ended with five saves.

Fontbonne seniors Emily Davenport, Kayla Thorpe and Allison Weber helped the Griffins record one of the best seasons of women's soccer in the history of the program this year. The Griffins not only tied the wins in a season record, but they also tied the most shutouts in a single season record (12). As a team, Fontbonne set a new record for fewest goals allowed in a season, allowing their opponents to score just 13 goals. The previous record was 15 goals allowed. Pulvirenti recorded nine shutouts on the year, breaking the previous record of eight shutouts.

Junior Kelly Hobbs led the team in scoring with 10 goals and 7 assists. Six of those goals were game-winners. Ashlynn Reiter scored nine goals and four assists while Paige Pfankuch tallied nine assists on the season.