Duquesne’s setbacks lead to “embarrassing” tie

Thursday evening, the Duquesne Women’s Soccer Team stated that it had learned a lesson after conceding two second-half goals against Rhode Island however Sunday afternoon against Saint Joseph’s enough action did not back up this belief.

Duquesne, which led 2-0 early on in the second half at Rooney Field, failed to properly defend its home field, surrendering a pair of goals less than two minutes apart and coming away with a 2-2 tie.

Though, Duquesne remains without a loss in Atlantic 10 play, the team’s body language and coach Al Alvine’s words all relayed a common message, that this game had gotten away.

Alvine in particular was still visibly frustrated, even a good 10-15 minutes after the game, during which he spoke to his team. He had a chance to cool down but it was not enough.

“I told them it wasn’t good enough,” Alvine stated. “We’re at the part of the season where every point counts and when you throw away a two-goal lead in the position we’re in, those are the type of things that could cost. Maybe you’re not hosting a tournament game or in the tournament, it’s unacceptable. The manner which we conceded them was laughable, we basically gifted them two goals. We played right into their hands, we played their games. We had some moments that were good but I consider this two points dropped, no question.”

Saint Joseph’s scored the first goal less than a minute after allowing an own goal as Jiselle Daniels scored her second on frame this season.

As was the case Thursday, Duquesne lacked the ability to both maintain and possess the ball in the direct aftermath and was punished once more with Marin Boyle tying the game.

“We need to understand why the mistakes happen and learn from them and learn how to prevent them in future games,” senior captain Sarah Wilkinson said. “They weren’t defensive breakdowns, they were just mistakes. If we can rid of bad touches on the ball and make smart passes, it should been a game we easily won 2-0.”

Alvine was particularly frustrated that the goals were not moments of “individual brilliance” or a great combination, which would have softened the blow of having surrendered two goals, but instead the goal set of winning each home conference game is now no longer a possibility, with a few minutes’ worth of miscues the culprit.

Instead, he viewed the result as an embarrassment.

“We’re our own worst enemy right now,” said Alvine. “That’s a team that hasn’t scored a goal in 3-4 games. We just gifted them two. Charity. I know we’re a Catholic school and everything, but jeez come on.”

In the closing 10-15 minutes of the game, with three points on the line, Duquesne was jogging into formations, something which Wilkinson believed partly was because of teammates who played 90 minutes Thursday having a quick turnaround to do match that feat, this time in hotter weather.

Even so, she did admit that the not possessing as much urgency was something that absolutely had to be fixed.

“Ultimately in the last five minutes it came down to some of us would rather settle for the tie instead of pushing for the win,” she said. “We have to strive for the win and ultimately we played it a little too safe today. We should’ve been a little riskier going forward because we needed those three points at home.”

Duquesne’s two goals were spread with one occurring in each half.

First Araujo fell to the ground in the 28th, got a foot on the ball and it found the back of the net. It was the junior’s fourth goal of the season matching last season’s total.

Araujo contributed towards the second goal as well, providing pressure inside of the box. While some Duquesne players and fans were looking for a foul, she stuck with the play, which helped lead to an own goal.

Up to that point, Duquesne had controlled the game and Saint Joseph’s was struggling to find a good look on frame, but that would quickly change as it took all of 2:20 after the second goal for this contest to be tied.

After the game was over, it was a quiet Duquesne sideline, as it processed how the result went from a such a positive one to what the outcome ended up being.

Duquesne will take to the road, traveling to face the Richmond Spiders Thursday as it looks to gain some momentum before returning home against a Saint Louis team which has traditionally been an A-10 powerhouse.

“We really wanted to learn from (Thursday) going into today’s game and I don’t think we did,” said Wilkinson. “For us, we need to figure out what we want to do with this season. We go on the road and then we play Saint Louis which is at the top of our conference every year. Now is the time to figure it out as a team.”

GAMEDAY INFO

Duquesne (3-3-1/1-0-1 A-10): Maddy Nuendorfer (GK), Ashley Rodriguez, Karley Steinher, Libby Majka, Margey Brown, Lindsay Krafchick, Jaimi Araujo, Brianna Wons, Kayla Winicki, Emma Bundy, Sarah Wilkinson

Saint Joseph’s (1-5-4/0-0-2 A-10): Katie Cappelletti (GK), Ashley Orendac, Lauren Hatt, Nicole Angelini, Erica Behr, Amanda Maxson, Natalie Nevins, Marin Boyle, Sam Dumont, Jiselle Daniels, Maddie Anderson

Goals: Jaimi Araujo DUQ 4th 28′, Own goal DUQ 49′, Jiselle Daniels SJU 2nd 50′, Marin Boyle SJU 1st 51′

Cards: Cami Taylor DUQ 64′, Brianna Moore DUQ 77′, Maddie Anderson SJU 79′, Jaimi Araujo DUQ 86′

Corners: SJU 8 DUQ 0

Shots: SJU 21 (8 on frame) DUQ 9 (4 on frame)