Cabrini’s women’s soccer team streak of CSAC championships has been stopped at five. The No. 2-seeded Cavaliers end came at the hands of the No. 3-seeded Centenary Cyclones in a 3-0 loss at the Edith Robb Dixon Field. The Cavaliers finished the season with a record of 10-7-1.
Cabrini’s seniors Jess Breuning, Megan Horn, Marissa Jenkins, and Allie Vallen had 45 wins and three CSAC championships in their time at Cabrini University.
“They have been the rock of the team; they’ve held us together even when we’ve been down on ourselves and they’re just inspirational to look up to, they have done so much in their four years here,” LeGendre said, talking about the seniors on the team. “We are going to miss them a lot next year.”
The Cyclones outshot the Cavaliers 7-4 over 90 minutes of play, with none of Cabrini’s shots landing on goal. Neither team was able to find the goal in the first period of play.
“This was a tough season and we had to work really hard. We had a lot of new people but we just worked as a team and we only lost one regular season game even with all those new people,” CSAC defensive player of the year goalkeeper LeGendre said. “I’m proud of how we came together as a team. We could have fought and not gotten along, but we just made sure everyone was included and came together to play as best as we can. I’m looking forward to getting back together with everyone and seeing everyone again. We’ll know everybody coming in next year so we can just take it one day at a time and see how it goes next year. There were a few communication errors, but we played so well that I don’t see that much that we could have done better.”
The Cyclones were finally able to break through Cabrini’s defense in the second half when Centenary player Kara LaPolice scored on a header with the assist coming from a cross from Amanda Benoit. At the 82:36 mark, Centenary scored again, this time on a chip shot from Jessie Sharr with the assist credited to Chloe Christopher. To seal the game, at the 87:09 mark Emily Pizzuto scored on a 30 yard free kick.
“Centenary just played a really smart game against us and forced us to get away from possession,” head coach Ken Prothero said. “We were playing a little too many long balls and we got away from our game. We are going to really really miss our seniors, but we have so many new faces that made immediate impacts I think our future looks really bright with this group. I think the number one thing that kind of really hurt us was our ability to not finish on corner kicks; we had so many chances on corner kicks and we just couldn’t finish on corners and I think that’s one of the number one things we have to work on next year.”
Cabrini had seven corner kicks compared to Centenary’s three. The Cavaliers also had two offsides called against them. LeGendre played the full game and finished the day with one save. Junior Taylor Trailie and Vallen were the only Cabrini players to attempt shots on the game.
“It was a really tough season, not many returners, and only two return starters. Most proud of our team. We came together a lot and we came a lot further than where we started. Finishing our shots was definitely something we struggled with, but we definitely improved from the beginning,” Breuning said.
Prothero said, “I think we had our fair share of ups and downs. We obviously started out as 0-5 which was disappointing and we knew it was going to be a difficult start with the number of starters we lost to graduation. To come back with new starters and the rest were mostly new faces out there we expected not to win many games early on. We also didn’t expect to win as many as we did. I mean we went 10 or 11 games without losing. Our seniors went 41 games without losing a game except for last weekend when we played against Gwynedd Mercy. The pluses far out-weigh any of the negatives. They finished almost tied for first with an entirely new team, that speaks volumes to the kids we have on this squad.”
On a brighter note, Cabrini had four players finish with CSAC first team honors. Breuning, LeGendre, Trailie and junior Kelsee Tironi gained first team honors. Freshman Maddy Wojton earned Honorable Mention Vallen was named to the CSAC All-Sportsmanship team. Trailie finishes the season with the most points on the team with 16. She led the team in goals with seven while freshman Alex Garces led the team in assists with five on the year.
Talking about the seniors on the team, Prothero said, “Every single day constant professionals; just they way the hold themselves, the way they practice, the way they communicate and they way they play they’re just always about the team. You can’t replace that and to replace what these guys have given us will be the hardest thing.”
A senior on the team, Breuning said, “There is a lot of leadership. I mean seniors being here four years, whether being here or on the bench you know the underclassman look up to you and you have to be a role model for everyone.”
