Fordham University Women’s Soccer suffered a 2-1 loss to the Saint Joseph’s University Hawks in the first round of the Atlantic 10 tournament, ending their season at Moglia Stadium.
The Hawks scored their first goal in the 24th minute against the run of play. Freshman forward Sarah Fisher found her sophomore counterpart Emily Hanrahan with a through ball that split the Fordham defense. Hanrahan took the ball in stride before burying it past junior goalkeeper Kyla King.
St. Joseph’s doubled their lead in the 40th minute from a 40-yard free kick by graduate student defender Chloe Khelil. From almost her own half, Khelil lifted a ball into the box that bounced awkwardly past King for the defender’s first goal of the season.
Coming out of the half, the Rams looked to chip away at the 2-0 Hawks lead. Chances from graduate student forward Abby Borchers and freshman Julia Acosta kept graduate student goalkeeper Katie Cappelletti on her toes. Fordham thought they had earned a penalty kick hefty in the match after sophomore winger Riley Carroll appeared to be tripped up by Cappelletti. The official did not see enough in the challenge to blow his whistle. The Rams finally got on the board in the 90th minute, thanks to Carroll. She cut inside, wrapping her shot around Cappelletti to make the game 2-1.
Despite the goal, the measly six seconds left on the clock allowed the Hawks to run out the clock, sealing their ticket to face Saint Louis University in the semi-finals.
The Rams were without star forward Liina Tervo in this matchup, hindering their attacking threat.
With the loss, Fordham ends the season with a 10-5-4 record, finishing fourth in the A-10. They were projected to miss the tournament and finish 10th in the preseason poll. Despite their first-round exit, Magnus Nilerud’s women smashed expectations all season. They finished third in the A-10 in goals scored and total points on the season. Young stars, like Tervo, who led the conference in total points, and Acosta, who led the conference in shots on target, give the program a promising outlook for the future. Fordham can also rely on leaders entering their final season like captain Ella Guth, who played 1,544 minutes this year, to steer the ship.
Women’s Soccer will next take the field when the flowers start to bloom in spring, competing in a month’s worth of exhibition games before taking the summer off to prepare for the 2025 fall season.
