Duquesne W Soccer Falls On Senior Day

The Duquesne Women’s Soccer Team fell 2-1 to Ohio Sunday afternoon on Rooney Field wrapping up the non-conference portion of its schedule.

“We had a ton of quality opportunities especially in the first couple minutes of the game,” head coach Jess Giegucz analyzed. “We’ll learn from it, we’ll grow, but I felt like we were dominant for the majority of the game in possession and then attacking opportunities, which we are creating a lot which is a good positive right now.”

Prior to this contest, Duquesne honored its 12 seniors in Reagan Basehore, Ashlyn Basinger, Anna Bundy, Grace Fogarty, Ali Hughes, Kiley Johnson, Kaitlyn Killinger, Paige Kuisis, Kayla and Skylar Leseck, Jayden Sharpless and Emma Van Meter. As each entered the locker room, there were gifts waiting and messages written.

Here are three takeaways from the afternoon:

1. There certainly was some disappointment with this loss and for good reason. Duquesne dominated possession 62%-38% but Ohio really had two opportunities which it capitalized on.

Further, Duquesne had extremely good looks early, getting off the first eight shots of Sunday’s game. A lot of those were generated by significantly improved passing, something Giegucz conceded needed to be figured out and was put on full display, leading to stronger possession.

Duquesne had 11 corner kicks in this contest as well, showing just show hard-working of a side it was. One of those set pieces was from Brynn Ramsey that Molly Kinsella headed for her first career goal. For Ramsey, this was her fourth assist of the season.

“She’s awesome, she has a lot of different ways that she helps the team, and it was really nice to see it be her time to help the team shine,” determined Giegucz. “It was a great header and a great ball from Brynn as well.”

2. A big part of this team’s success could hinge on how quickly it bounces back. Whether that be from a challenging run of play or in Sunday’s case, not responding quickly enough upon conceding a goal.

Absolutely, and this touches back to the first point, it is deflating to surrender a goal after dominating play. The easy thing to do is put a head down or in this situation, there was a 10-to-15-minute stretch where Rooney Field was extremely quiet, but the challenge is to fight for that bigger purpose, for team and those end goals mentioned during preseason.

“It’s something we’ve been continuing to make progress on this year,” Giegucz stated. “I think our back line is having a better understanding of negating those opportunities, but it also comes down to what we are doing higher on the field. When the goal happened, higher on the field we were a little flatter, so the biggest opportunity we have to deny those is what we do higher of the field.”

As Duquesne headed into the locker room it led to a question. What do you tell a team that was so attack minded, yet still was trailing at halftime?

“I had to tell the girls to continue to believe in what we’re doing,” revealed Giegucz. “We’re creating tons of opportunities, and they have to have a belief system to put some of those in the back of the net. We created just as many chances in the second half as we did in the first half, but the conversion rate has to be a little higher. They’re learning and understanding that there has to be a belief system to this as well.”

The Dukes would concede that second goal but turned the page instantly with Kinsella’s response coming just over two minutes later. Duquesne would fight to the end earning multiple corner kicks in the final minute but could not find an equalizer.

3. Duquesne has some time to turn the page as it opens Atlantic 10 play Saturday as the opening part of a doubleheader with the men’s team against Rhode Island. The opening kick comes at 4 p.m. as part of alumni weekend. As per one of the returning players from last year’s team, there is expected to be a healthy group of alumni coming back to the Bluff.

The Dukes are currently a 3-4-1 team and now Giegucz explained that the schedule flips to the A10 and it is about starting over having learned lessons across the first eight games.

“We have to reset now because the first eight games of the season were all preparation and we continue to make progress,” she concluded. “Now we’re starting with a blank slate again and going forward with the continued belief that we are making progress.”

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SHE SAID IT

“She has some confidence right now, so that’s really fun. I think anybody who watches her has a fun time seeing how dynamic she is.” – Giegucz on Ramsey.

Zac Weiss