Sean McKean | Staff Writer
The Duquesne women’s soccer team took on the Bowling Green Falcons at Rooney Field on Sunday afternoon, and were victorious by a final score of 2-0.
Margey Brown and Mackenzie Muir were the two goalscorers. Brown’s came in the first half while Muir’s was in the second. Lindsay Krafchick was the lone player with an assist. Muir also led the team in shots with three. While Bowling Green went scoreless, Lexi Czerwein took four shots and Michelle Hochstadt fired three.
The first 15 minutes of the game saw zeroes across the board in nearly every stat, with the Dukes and Falcons jockeying for possession.
Duquesne took the lead at the 18-minute mark, when Brown managed to break free from defenders and scored her team-leading fifth goal in just three games, with the assist from Krafchick, her first of the season.
After the game, Brown described how the goal unfolded despite how difficult it was for the Dukes to take prominent possession.
“Well, Lindsay had a break on the outside, and I noticed that [Bowling Green’s]
outside back was high so I made a run to the back post and put it in,” she said.
After the goal, though, the game returned to a stalemate, with Duquesne only clocking two shots for the rest of the half, while Bowling Green was left off the half’s shot chart entirely. Subsequently, the first half ended with a score of 1-0 in favor of the Dukes.
With the first half featuring few breaks for the players, the excessive heat of the day threatened to take a toll on the team. However, Brown and her teammates didn’t view it as a mental blockage.
“Well, we try not to talk about the heat actually,” she said. “That’s kind of our rule. That shouldn’t be a factor, it’s hot for both teams, so we put that to the side.”
Bowling Green opened the second half with a lot of energy, getting a shot on goal in the first few seconds from Brynn Gardner. Six minutes later, Gardner followed that opportunity up with a breakaway chance that was turned aside by Maddy Neundorfer.
The Dukes responded soon, however, with Hailey Longwell taking a shot that barely missed the post at 52 minutes. Muir also followed to take her first several shots of the game five minutes later, but all swung wide.
Muir finally succeeded in achieving a goal in the 67th minute, scoring on a centering pass from Jayden Sharpless with help by a Bowling Green deflection. For Muir, it was her first goal in nearly two calendar years.
Although Bowling Green ended up outshooting Duquesne with 12 total shots, all in the second half, the Dukes held strong for their first shutout of the 2024 campaign.
“You know, we knew they were going to be a good team, they have a very specific way of playing that was going to be a challenge to us. But we came out, we had a game plan, the kids stuck to it, and they did well,” Duquesne Head Coach Al Alvine said.
Winners of two of their first three after a 6-2 rout of Division I-newcomer Mercyhurst and a close 2-1 loss to city rival No. 7 Pitt, Brown said the Dukes possess the qualities they need to keep their early-season momentum up.
“I mean, just in practice, I feel like, as a team, as a whole, we’ve been going hard at it,” she said. “I feel like it’s been paying off. And tribute to my teammates, they served me balls on a platter.”
With the two goals, Duquesne has already found the back of the net nine times on the season, a marker that took them twice as many games at the start of last year’s season.
For the upcoming practices, and eventual game against Kent State following an extended break, Alvine doesn’t fancy making any major plans, but stressed that his team needs to continue to grow in order to sustain their success.
“Yeah, I think we’re in a good spot right now,” he said. “There are certainly things we want to fine-tune as we go through, we want our finishing to be a little better, our decision-making in the final third to be a little better, organization in the back is good, the communication is getting better every time. So given where we are with the season right now, I think we’re on a good trajectory.”
Alvine and his team will have ample time to improve, as Duquesne’s long hiatus in the schedule means they won’t return to action until Sept. 8, when they host the Golden Flashes for Senior Day at Rooney Field. They’ll then visit Saint Francis and Youngstown State before kicking off Atlantic-10 Conference play on Sept. 19 at Richmond.