The AU women's soccer team suffered a devastating shutout on Saturday afternoon with a 2-0 loss to Colgate, putting a damper on Senior Day and effectively eliminating them from the Patriot League playoffs.
Locked in a fourth-place tie with Lehigh coming into Saturday's game, American needed a win or a tie to get an automatic playoff berth. A loss by Lehigh later that day would have also gotten AU into the tournament, but the Mountain Hawks beat Holy Cross to earn the fourth playoff spot.
The Eagles were in a hole early, when Colgate's Kelly Niland scored eight minutes into the first half. AU had chances to score in the first, attempting 12 shots with seven on goal, but came up empty.
The Eagles looked more aggressive on offense in the second half, with eight shots and six corner kicks. However, a string of unlucky breaks plagued the Eagles, including a penalty kick by Niland which put the Raiders up 2-0 with 24:32 left to play.
American had two shots hit the crossbar in the second half, killing their momentum and chances to get on the board. The first was a shot by freshman defender Olivia Heditsian midway through the half, while senior Jana Lee had a near-identical shot with just under seven minutes left in regulation.
"You look at the game and certainly say we dominated in terms of possession and controlling the flow of the game, but ultimately all anybody else will remember is the scoreline," said AU head coach Michael Brady. "We looked great at times today but we just didn't get the job done."
The loss dropped the Eagles to a fifth-place finish on the season, where they went 9-7-2 overall and 3-3-1 in the Patriot League.
The loss also marked the last collegiate game for AU's five seniors: captains Meg Runeari and Christina Gonzalez, Jana Lee, Jenna Abbondi and goalkeeper Alison Doyle. The seniors played in front of family and friends, who were among the 279 in attendance at Reeves Field.
"We've been here for four years," said Runeari. "All of our parents came out, so right from the start it was big. It was frustrating that we couldn't get one in the net."
"All five seniors were important regardless of how much we played," she continued. "We said from the beginning that the team is only as strong as their seniors, and we came out to play everyday, were here for our teammates and we did what we could"
