(Staten Island, NY) - By the time the Mount Saint Vincent Women's Soccer team realized what was going wrong during Sunday's Hudson Valley Women's Athletic Conference (HVWAC) Championship Game against the College of Staten Island, it was too late and the game was all but over ... even though there were still 84 minutes left to play. A fired up CSI team came out of the gate and scored three goals during the first 6:18 of play, and then their defense - led by Tournament MVP Tina Bellocchio, who made eight saves and did not allow a goal during the HVWAC playoffs - thwarted the Mount's desperate comeback effort as Staten Island won its first-ever HVWAC Tounament Championship with a 4-0 win over Mount Saint Vincent during a game played at CSI.
With the win, CSI is now 12-5-1 and awaits a possible ECAC post-season bid. Mount Saint Vincent finishes the 2006 season with a 7-8-1 record.
CSI, who downed Medgar Evers 4-0 on Saturday to capture the CUNY Championship and blanked the College of Saint Elizabeth 9-0 in the HVWAC Semifinals on Thursday, came out with a bang, scoring at 3:42 on an outside shot by Fiosa Begai to take the lead. 1:21 later, it was 2-0 as Staten Island scored a beautiful transition goal when Danielle Otaiza found Shannon Connelly wide open on a crossing pass in front of the net. 1:15 after that goal, it became 3-0 CSI when the Dolphins scored a similar transition goal, this time Otaiza found Lauren Baydal open in front of the Mount Saint Vincent net.
Down 3-0, Mount Saint Vincent tried valiantly to turn the tide, but the CSI defense - led by Bellocchio's tremendous day in net, held strong. Mount Saint Vincent actually outshot CSI during the final 84 minutes of play and CSI finished with only a 16-14 edge in shots after the blistering start, but the Mount was unable to score. Otaiza closed the scoring at 31:31 with an outside shot goal to give her four points on the day. From there, Staten Island cruised to victory and swept both the regular season and tournament championships.
Neither team scored a goal during the second half of play.
For Mount Saint Vincent, junior Cynthia Osorio (Oceanside, NY/Oceanside HS) had a big game with five of the Mount's 16 shots and another outstanding defensive performance, and the Dolphin defense - led by junior goalie Alexis Alessi (Rockville Centre, NY/Oceanside HS) - turned in an impressive performance after CSI's early rally, but the damage had already been done.
The Women's Soccer team may have ended their season with a loss, but they have much to look forward to in the future as they lose only 3 seniors to graduation and should return a strong, young team in 2007.
