The St. John’s women’s soccer team played two thrilling matches this past weekend, meeting up to play Big East opponents Pittsburgh and West Virginia.
Despite being out shot 9-0 in the first half by the Mountaineers Sunday, freshman goalkeeper Rebecca Capinera and the defense was able to keep West Virginia from scoring for most of the first half. However, the Mountaineers eventually capitalized on their shots, with Rachael Minnich notching the game winner. Despite the setback, St. John’s coach Ian Stone is proud of the job Capinera did.
“Rebecca has a lot of potential,” Stone said. “She has a great desire to get better, and even better things are to come in the future.”
Stone described West Virginia as a difficult team to play, and compete with.
“They play very intense,” Stone said. “They’re very fit and have a lot of depth. It’s also a difficult place to play and a pretty hostile environment.”
The loss is St. John’s seventh straight to West Virginia and their sixth straight at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium. The streak includes Big East Tournament losses in 2003 and 2002.
The Red Storm’s last win over West Virginia was a 1-0 overtime game on Oct. 18 1998 at DaSilva Field.
Although the Red Storm was shut out, Stone believes the box score was misleading, and that the team “worked hard and was capable of playing with them (West Virginia), and it just wasn’t our day.”
The Red Storm will take on Georgetown here at St. John’s Friday, as well as Villanova Sunday.
St. John’s 1, Pittsburgh 0
Brittany Cavarra would have been happy with just scoring a goal. The freshman left Belson Stadium Friday night with that memory and more.
Cavarra scored her first goal at St. John’s, which proved to be the game winner in the Red Storm’s 1-0 win over Pittsburgh, their first conference win of the season.
The score came in the 43rd minute after a West Virginia defender miss played a high pass.
“She just kind of miss touched it,” Cavarra said. “I just took a touch and saw the keeper running backwards and took advantage of that opportunity.”
Cavarra’s shot from just above the top of the box sailed over the hands a leaping goalkeeper Jamie Pelusi.
“To have the vision to see the keeper off the line is one thing,” Stone said, “and then having the technique to put the ball over her head.”
