ERIE, Pa. — The Marietta College women's soccer team closed out the Penn State Behrend Herb Lauffer Memorial Tournament against former conference foe John Carroll on Sunday (Sept. 6) afternoon. Despite a strong performance in goal from Pioneer goalkeeper
Francesca Agliolo (San Gabriel, Calif./Mayfield Senior), the Blue Streaks secured a hard-fought 1-0 victory. With the loss, the Pioneers drop to 1-2 and with the victory, John Carroll improves to 1-2 overall.
"Better defensive performance today," said Marietta head coach
Zack Votra. "We've got plenty of work to do, but I'm pleased with the growth of our program over this long weekend."
John Carroll controlled much of the early tempo, with Lucy Altieri forcing a save from Agliolo just five minutes into the match. Marietta attempted to respond quickly, getting a header from
Tati Grigoryan (Sun Valley, Calif./Crescenta Valley) and a shot from
Jaylyn Thornton (Pataskala, Ohio/Watkins Memorial), but John Carroll keeper Madison Skeese stood tall to protect the lead.
The key moment of the match came early in the first half. At the 11:44 mark, John Carroll's Brooke Berkowitz found the back of the net to score the first and only goal of the game. The play was set up by a sharp assist from Molly Brown, marking Berkowitz's first goal of the season.
Both teams battled back and forth for several minutes with no additional scores, but Marietta created one final opportunity before the break when
Katie Heighberger (LaGrange, Ohio/Saint Joseph Academy) fired a shot at the 40:09 mark, but Skeese made the save to preserve the 1-0 lead heading into halftime.
The second half saw John Carroll pushing hard for an insurance score. Sophia Generalovich and Evie Coutris both forced saves by Agliolo, while Berkowitz nearly scored in the 65th minute when her shot rattled off the crossbar.
Marietta struggled to break through JCU's defense, but the Blue Streaks faced their own frustrations with a total of seven offside calls throughout the game, alongside a yellow card issued to Molly Brown in the 67th minute.
Despite a late flurry of shots from John Carroll, Agliolo kept Marietta within striking distance by racking up multiple second-half saves. However, the Pioneers could not mount a final attack and John Carroll claimed the 1-0 victory.
Marietta will next be in action on Saturday (Sept. 12) when the Pioneers travel to battle Transylvania University. The match is scheduled a 3 p.m. kickoff.
Fans can follow all the Pioneer teams all year long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on X and Instagram.
