The St. John’s women’s soccer is approaching one of the most crucial segments of the season, the October road trip.

Past October road trips were the main barrier blocking the Red Storm from attaining their first NCAA Tournament bid.

Two years ago, they cruised to an 8-1-3 record before they faced a four game road trip, where they went 1-3. Last year, the team was headed into the road trip in the midst of a three game winning streak, but went 1-1-1.
This year, with a 9-2-1 record, the team doesn’t think history will repeat itself.

“This is a different team, this is a different year,” St. John’s midfielder Raelynne Lee said. “We do have a lot of confidence and belief in ourselves.”

The road trip begins Friday against Pittsburgh and continues Sunday at West Virginia. Next Thursday, the team travels to New Jersey to face Seton Hall. Two days later, they visit Rutgers.

“It’s huge,” St. John’s goalkeeper Kristin Russell said. “We have four away games in a row. It’s key for the season.”
On Sunday, the Red Storm lost to Cincinnati, 1-0, after falling behind in the first half. Similarly, against
Connecticut and Louisville, the Red Storm failed to set the tempo early in the game, and fell behind.

“I’m honestly not sure why,” Lee said. “We talked about that at the end of the game today. As a team we are going to try and figure it out.”

Stone said he may tinker with the pregame routine and workouts for the upcoming trip.

“I told the girls we have to work it out and may have to do a different work out or something,” Stone said. “… [Starting games] against good teams, we can’t be complacent.”

So far on the road, the Red Storm has been successful. Already defeating Cal-State Fullerton and USC on their California trip, and then beating Columbia two weeks ago.

“Last year we were a totally different team; our confidence is a lot stronger this year,” Russell said. “I think we have proven we can win on the road. If we win the next four games away, that’ll be huge.”

Unlike other years, Stone believes the team should win every game it plays.

“They always bounce back,” Stone said. “We are a resilient group of people.We are a good team and I expect to go into every game and win the game. That won’t change after today.”

The team is ready for the challenge.

“This was just one game, not the end of the world,” Lee said. “If we fix what we need to fix in practice, we’ll be fine.”