SWARTHMORE, Pa. – #12 Swarthmore College (16-2-2) defeated Saint Joseph's College (16-4-0), 5-1, in the first round of the NCAA DIII Women's Soccer Tournament on Saturday afternoon. The loss signals the end of the 2018 season for the Monks.
Senior Haley DaGraca (Saco, Maine) netted the Monks' lone goal in the 31st minute, when she blasted a shot to the upper right corner from about 30 yards out for her 20th goal of the season and 70th of her collegiate career. Sophomore McKenzie Murphy (West Baldwin, Maine) was credited with an assist on the goal, which made it a 2-1 game at the time.
Any momentum gained by the SJC strike was quickly negated however, as Sydney Covitz scored a PK goal less than three minutes later to extend the Garnet lead to 3-1.
Swarthmore, which scored twice in the first seven minutes of play, proceeded to tack on goals in the 45th and 54th minutes to account for the 5-1 final.
THE KEEPERS
Despite yielding five goals, Saint Joseph's freshman Adia Grogan (Kennebunk, Maine) was terrific in the loss with a career-best 16 saves. Garnet keeper Amy Shmoys turned away one shot in the triumph, which sees Swarthmore advance to the second round of the NCAA tourney for the fourth-consecutive season.
TEAM STATS
Swarthmore held considerable leads in shots (37-5), shots on goal (21-2), and corner kicks (8-0) in the victory.
SENIOR SEND-OFF
The loss signals the end of collegiate soccer for the Monks' six seniors: DaGraca, Michaela MacDonald (New Gloucester, Maine), Skye Murray (Dayton, Maine), Colleen Sheehan (Medway, Mass.), Emily Thornton (Westbrook, Maine), and Angela Valenti (Litchfield, N.H.). The 2019 graduating class has helped Saint Joseph's record an excellent 48-27-4 (.608) overall record - including a 29-12-4 (.644) mark in conference play - and capture the first Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Tournament in program history.
