Women's Soccer Opens BIG EAST Play

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The women's soccer team begins conference play when it takes on BIG EAST foe St. John's on Friday for a 6 p.m. match. The Orange then travel to non-conference rival Colgate on Sunday at 1 p.m. SU heads into the weekend with a 3-2-2 record and is coming off an overtime victory at Binghamton. The game can be viewed live by clicking here.

Scouting the Red Storm

St. John’s (5-0-1) opened the season undefeated – the best start for the Red Storm since 2004. They recently ended play at the University of Buffalo Classic on Sunday, with a 0-0 tie against Maine. Senior Krystle Jalalian and freshman Raelynne Lee lead the team with eight points. Lee is the leading scorer with four goals. Goalkeepers Jaime Beran and Rebecca Capinera have only allowed a combined three goals. Beran, a senior, has posted the better numbers of the two with a 0.31 goals-against average and a .800 save percentage. In a series that dates back to 1996, the Orange hold a 7-3-1 advantage.

Farmer's Keys To Success

"The big thing for us is understanding how important the St. John's game is," said head coach Pat Farmer said. "The winner of this game has gone onto the BIG EAST Tournament each year and the loser has not. We're always in the running with St. John's, so understanding that this is an important factor even though it's just the first of eleven Big East games.

"Getting used to the (field) turf will be faster than the other night (Binghamton) and their team is well set up to play on the turf. So making the necessary adjustments will be a big deal. We've been defending pretty well, but not finishing a bunch of our chances. We had a couple of scrappy little goals the other night; I'm sort of hoping that gets us off the mark here."

Scouting the Raiders

Colgate (4-2-1) is on a four-game winning streak led by senior Franny Iacuzzi, who is leading the team in scoring for the fourth-consecutive year. She has accumulated six goals and one assist. Goalkeeper Carly Sousa has made 43 saves in seven games and has registered a .860 save percentage. The Orange leads the all-time series 8-2-1.

Farmer's Keys To Success

"The Colgate match will be a little different for us," Farmer said. "It's a big local rivalry and comes after the first Big East game. It always tends to be a little bit of a different psychological set because the match is a non-conference outing after conference play began.

"I think the mental approach there at the beginning will be a good indication of how we are going to do for the day. Certainly bragging rights for this part of the world are up for grabs and they have a very good team with some really special individuals."

The Golden Touch

Sophomore Chelsea Berry (Lowville, N.Y.) has come through with a series of late-game heroics over the last seven matches this season. Berry has scored two game-winning goals – the first two goals of her career. She scored her first game-winning goal off a corner kick in the 67th minute in the 2-1 win against Fairleigh Dickinson. Berry’s second game-winner was 41 seconds into overtime at Binghamton to give the Orange a 2-1 win.

Working Overtime

Seven matches into the season, the women’s soccer team has already taken three consecutive games into overtime, two of them going into double overtime. The first game that resulted in double overtime was against East Carolina with an outcome of 0-0. Two days later Syracuse played eighth-ranked Boston College and took them into double overtime with a final score of 0-0. The third overtime came against Binghamton that resulted in a win for the Orange, 2-1. In 2005, the soccer team had five-consecutive matches that went into overtime, resulting in four ties and one win. In the last two years the team has gone into overtime 13 times combined, tying seven of those games.

Syracuse University Athletics

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