This past weekend, the Orange and Blue women’s soccer team battled the Black Knights of Army West Point in West Point, New York. Army West Point scored two goals in the final 20 minutes of the match to rally past the Bison, 2-1. The Bison now sit at 7-7-3 on the season and 4-2-2 in Patriot League play

The Bison opened the scoring in the 31st minute, with Paige Temple ’25 finishing off a Teresa Deda’ 25 feed from the top of the box. It was Deda’s 11th assist of the season, where she stands first in the Patriot League. 

“West Point was a tough match for us. We started out strong on offense and got a goal in the first half, but lost momentum in the second half when the other team tied it up. Going into the Patriot League tournament we have the opportunity to learn from that mistake and work to keep the intensity for the full 90 minutes moving forward” said Emilene Parham ’22.

Rylee Donaldson ’23, the Patriot League leader in goals, nearly netted a goal to extend the Bison lead in the 40th minute. The Army goalie stopped the initial goal. Donaldson collected the initial rebound and sent another shot to the low corner, but it was saved and collected once more. 

Army West Point netted the equalizer in the 72nd minute after a corner kick, which fired past Bison goalkeeper Jenna Hall ’24. Army then found a winner late in the match to secure a 2-1 victory.

The Bison held advantages in shots (15-8), shots on goal (6-3) and corner kicks (5-2) and remained very competitive throughout the entire match. This loss snaps a four-game undefeated streak for the Bison. 

The Bison were able to bounce back and win 1-0 in overtime against Lehigh. The contest was extremely close with both sides generating very few obvious scoring chances. In the first overtime the Bison had a corner that was headed away by a Lehigh defender. The ball fell to Kenar Gelman on the right side of the box who whipped in a cross to the back post. Donaldson got on the end of the cross and headed the ball into the far corner for the game winner. The win was much needed for the Bison going into the Patriot League tournament and should give the Orange and Blue a big boost.

“Thankfully following a tough loss against Army West Point we were able to get back to playing our kind of soccer, and pull out an awesome win against Lehigh. It is going to be really helpful having this positive momentum heading into our first tournament game Sunday” added Parham. 

With the regular season wrapped up, the Bison now are looking ahead to the Patriot League tournament. With a final regular season record of 5-2-2 in Patriot League play, the Bison finished the regular season in 4th place in the Patriot League. They will host Lehigh in the first round of the Patriot League tournament on Oct. 31 at 1pm. Their most recent match was the only matchup between the two teams in the regular season.