JORDAN DEBOLT
Special to The Leader
After a rocky start in Virginia Beach two weeks ago where the Fredonia women’s soccer team lost two games, a bounce-back at their home tournament was exactly what they were looking for. This rebound was exactly what they got as the host Blue Devils won on Friday night over Penn State Behrend 2-1 and tied with Mount Union on Saturday night 3-3. By a tiebreaker, the Blue Devils were named tournament champions for the first time since 2008.
Friday’s game started fast for the Blue Devils as they jumped on Behrend 30 minutes in with two goals in less than a minute from freshman Kristie Kleine. She received the first goal following a pass from senior Mary Bruton and the second from another senior, Catie Hale. The Blue Devils went on to allow a goal in the second half but ultimately held on to win the game 2-1.
However, as fast as Friday night’s game started for the Blue Devils, Saturday’s championship started equally as slow. Fredonia surrendered two goals in the first 23 minutes and fell behind 2-0. However, they were not held down for long as they came storming back to tie it at 2 by goals from Kleine and sophomore Ally Tatro. Coach Chris Case credited his team for the great heart it took to rally back from the deficit.
“We tried a few different things including changing our system twice to be able to find something that worked,” Case said. “In addition to that, I just thought our girls dug down deep and had a heck of an effort to battle back from a 2-0 deficit and then, later in the game again, when we fell behind 3-2.”
After falling behind again early in the second half, the Blue Devils once again responded to tie the game at 3 and send the game to overtime, on a goal by senior Shannon Letina. The overtime period saw chances for both teams including a breakaway in the second overtime by Kleine that was brilliantly stopped by the Mount Union goaltender. The overtime period and 110 minutes of play solved nothing, so the championship was decided via tie breaker, allowing the Blue Devils to secure their home tournament for the first time in five years.
“It feels great that we won our tournament,” Bruton said. “Especially because we have not won since 2008. Winning definitely means a lot to our team because it shows everyone how well we can pull together and succeed.”
The Blue Devils now take a week off before they head to Rochester to play St. John Fisher College and host William Smith in their final tune-ups before SUNYAC play begins.
“I think our team is going to peak at the right time,” Hale said. “We keep getting better every game. We have a week break to get some things sorted out and then we are playing two really good teams before we go into our conference games and I think those are really going to help us prepare for them.”
Coach Case is excited about his team’s play this weekend but is not yet ready to jump for joy. His current focus is to have his team ready for the SUNYAC conference schedule.
“We are making steps forward each and every time we step on the field,” Coach Case said. “We have quite a young team and our success will hinge on how quickly our young players can adapt to this level. There is quite a bit of work that needs to get done if we want to have success in our conference.”