Junior captain Kahli Hale chases down a ball in women’s soccer team’s 1-0 loss to the University of Pittsburgh Sunday at Rooney Field.
Saúl Berríos-Thomas | Layout Editor
The Duquesne women’s soccer team faced a tough test on Sunday as Pitt overtook the Dukes 1-0 at Rooney Field Sunday afternoon.
Head coach Al Alvine thought the Dukes did well.
“I thought it was great game. I thought we outplayed them. I thought we out chanced them,” Alvine said. “This game is about scoring goals and we didn’t score any goals.”
The Dukes offense generated several chances throughout the game and put some tough shots on net. Pitt goalie Nicole D’Agostino set the tone for the match early, showing that there were not going to be any easy goals. After only four minutes the Dukes set up a great chance as Maggie Mayo, a freshman forward, got a great look at the net, but the 6-foot-1 D’Agostino used every inch of her large frame to tip the ball over the crossbar.
With just under three minutes to play Pitt forward Dana DelleFemine sent a good pass to sophomore midfielder Roosa Arvas, who controlled the ball at the top of the box and fired a good shot on net. The high shot sailed over junior goalkeeper Devon Tabata who couldn’t reach it and it found the back of the net for the first goal of the game.
Both Alvine and Tabata were disappointed with the goal.
“I didn’t get my feet in the place they needed to be for me to tip it over the crossbar,” Tabata said. “She had a free look at the top of the box and we gave her too much time and I didn’t do what I needed to do to take care of that ball.”
In the second half the Dukes kicked their offense into high gear. They outshot Pitt 9-3 in the second half and notched 7 corner kicks to Pitt’s 2. All the chances didn’t get past D’Agostino as she put up save after save en route to a shutout.
Alvine didn’t think the Dukes were getting the right kind of shots on net.
“With a keeper like that high balls are going to be an advantage for her,” he said. “Typically with a keeper like that the tougher balls are going to be low and in the corners. I don’t think we did a good enough job of getting those kind of shots.”
For the most part this is the team Alvine intends to use with some minor tweaks on the wings. Tabata is the starting goalie moving forward.
Alvine is hoping his team’s versatility will be an advantage against other opponents.
“The nature of our team is that we have a lot of interchangeable pieces. We have the ability now to show a lot of different looks,” he said.
The Dukes will face Marist on Sept. 1 at Rooney Field before heading to Maryland for the Navy Invitational.
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