Katie Day’s Overtime Goal Lifts PC Women’s Soccer Over Xavier

Providence College Press Release

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The women’s soccer team defeated Xavier University on Thursday, Sept. 29 in Providence, R.I. just seven minutes into overtime, 2-1. The Friars move to 7-3-2 overall and 1-0-1 in the BIG EAST. The Musketeers moved to 6-5-1 overall and 0-2 in the BIG EAST.

The draw moves the Friars’ all-time series against Xavier to 3-1-1. Juliana Pellegrini (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) began the Friars attack in the 13th minute with a shot that rang off the crossbar and rebounded to graduate student Kathryn Hiller (Dartmouth, Mass.), who then converted off of the rebound to give the Friars a 1-0 lead. The goal marks Hiller’s sixth goal of the season.

After the first half, Providence led in shots, 7-2. Senior goalkeeper Kristyn Shea (Piscataway, N.J.) recorded two saves to Xavier’s Rachel Piccus’ one save.

The Musketeers evened the score in the 60th minute when Samantha Dewey finished off of a cross from Kenadie Carlson. The goal marked Dewey’s sixth goal of the season and Carlson’s third assist on the season.

After 90 minutes of play, the score remained even at 1-1, despite the Friars 15 shots during the second half to the Musketeers three. Toni Bizzarro took the net for Xavier in the second half and recorded seven saves to Shea’s two in the second half.

Katie Day (East Hampstead, N.H.) tallied the game-winning goal off of a corner kick by Kayla Steeves (Needham, Mass.). The goal marks Day’s second of the season and her first game-winning goal of the 2016 season.

Coach Lopes stated after the game, "Credit to Xavier, they made it difficult tonight and competed well even after going down a goal. I am proud of the team to keep pushing with purpose to get the winner. We could have made it easier on ourselves but it would have been unfortunate had we not won based on our performance. There are no easy BIG EAST games and we have another difficult one on the road on Sunday."

The Friars will return to action on Sunday, Oct. 2 at 1:00 p.m. in Indianapolis, Ind. against Butler University.