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Duquesne’s loss frustrates Alvine

Al Alvine was given the postgame stat sheet and as quickly as the papers reached his hand, they were torn up into pieces and thrown on the floor.

Though Alvine laughed of his action after the fact, he was far from amused by his team’s 2-1 setback to Massachusetts.

In fact, after said action, Alvine turned to the two reporters and stated “let’s get this over with”, a clear sign that was going to follow was a Duquesne coach that was fired up about his team’s lack of fundamentals, while surrendering both goals which were conceded in the second half.

“Unlike the last two games where I felt we were the better team, we can have no complaints about this result today because we were poor in every facet of the game,” he said. “We looked slow, disinterested which was a shame because everything up until today was in our own hands in terms of making the tournament, possibly hosting. We just didn’t show up today. The better team won and they fully deserved this win. Even when we were up 1-0, they were determined to come out and change the narrative of the game. We didn’t seem interested in stopping them from doing it.”

The loss ends what was an eight-game winning streak at Rooney Field which dated back to last year’s senior day.

Indeed Duquesne was outclassed in this match, conceding 29 shots on the afternoon, 12 of which were on goal. Sophomore goalkeeper Megan Virgin set a career high with 10 saves.

Virgin had to face a barrage of shots, not just because UMass was spreading the ball around almost at will, but because Duquesne was watching them do it.

Even in the closing minutes, Duquesne did not appear to hit that extra gear in the closing minutes, jogging back to midfield on goal kicks and not being efficient enough as the clock ran down.

“It’s frustrating because those are the basics of the game,” said Alvine. “Most of these players are pretty accomplished and have played at a high level. It’s a question of being willing to put the work in and today we weren’t willing to put the work in.”

As much negativity was present, Duquesne did strike first in this contest as sophomore Alex Saturni scored her second goal of the season in the 12th minute. Saturni struck from 12 yards out after stealing the possession and beating the goalkeeper on the top left side of the net.

Though the first half was far from clinical, Duquesne did lead 1-0 at halftime, but as Alvine stated, UMass still placed the Dukes under considerable pressure in those 45 minutes and his team surrendered far too easily.

Assessing the Atlantic 10 standings, Saint Joseph’s holds the eighth and final spot in the Atlantic 10 Championships by virtue of its tie with Fordham. Duquesne finds itself a point behind Saint Joseph’s, Davidson and Fordham with two contests remaining.

Duquesne next hosts St. Bonaventure Thursday evening. The Bonnies came into Sunday riding a two-game winning steak and scored a goal against conference leader George Washington in a 2-1 setback.  The Dukes then end their regular season Sunday at Rhode Island seeking its first road victory of the season. Rhode Island picked up its first conference win in its most recent game, a 1-0 victory over Richmond.

“We’ll go back to the drawing board Tuesday but the reality is we have to change our thinking and attitude,” Alvine said. “Today playing at home with everything on the line, everything to play for, to get that sort of performance, it’s discouraging. It really is.”

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