NEWS

Davidson’s Aleia Gisolfi-McCready out-maneuvers an opponent at Alumni Stadium.

DAVIDSON, N.C. – The Davidson women’s soccer team began Atlantic 10 Conference play Thursday night, playing to a 1-1 tie with Duquesne. The ‘Cats return to Alumni Stadium on Sunday to host St. Bonaventure. 

The Wildcats started conference play coming off of a 3-0 Senior Day win against Presbyterian that saw Shea Bonacci, SJ Pak and Savannah Pruitt each net one goal in addition to Phoebe Fowler and Aleia Gisolfi-McCready dish out one assist each. 

“We couldn’t be more excited to start conference play this week” said head coach Riley Piechnick. “Up to this point, we’ve used every practice and game to develop how we want to play this season and improve. The A-10 is a league where you have to show up for every single game. It’s a challenge, but we are up for it!” 

Davidson produced its largest goal output of the season in the win while claiming its third shutout victory of the year. The ‘Cats took a season-high 22 shots placing 12 on target for an efficient 54.5 shooting percentage. 

Pacing the Wildcats heading into league play is Gisolfi-McCready with five points on two goals and one assist to go along with a 50.0 shooting percentage. Following are four players with one goal each in Bonacci, Pak, Pruitt and Riley Patton. 

A seven-game starter in goal, Emily Smith leads a defense that has allowed the least amount of goals against among the entire A-10 with sixth in addition to the team having the fifth highest save percentage. 

Individually, Smith continues to move up in the leagues ranks as one of the more efficient goalkeepers and is second in both goals against average (.857) and shutouts (3) while ranking fourth in save percentage (.806) and eighth in saves (25). 

The Wildcats will look to snap a two-year streak of losses in their conference openers when they welcome the Dukes to Alumni Stadium tomorrow. 

SCOUTING ST. BONAVENTURE

The Bonnies claim a 1-2-4 record prior to an upcoming match against Dayton Thursday a 7 p.m.

Davidson leads the series 3-2-1 over St. Bonaventure with the most recent meeting between the two squads concluding in a 3-0 Wildcat win on the road in Olean, N.Y. 

As a team, the Bonnies average 1.14 goals per game and put 45.3 percent of their shots on goal. 

St. Bonaventure is paced by Olivia Allen with eight points on three goals and two assists as well as Ami Komori with six points on three goals. The pair have combined to score six of the team’s eight total goals. 

Starting goalkeeper Chiara Gottinger has made 32 saves to go along with a 1.82 GAA and .762 save percentage prior to playing Dayton.