Newburgh, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Women's Soccer team closes out the regular season on Wednesday with a key conference clash with preseason favorite Farmingdale State. Kick-off with the Rams at Kaplan Field is scheduled for 5:00 p.m.
At A Glance: The Knights enter Wednesday's tilt at 14-3-1 overall and a perfect 8-0-0 in conference play. The Knights have won 11 of their last 12 outings and are coming off an 8-0 win at league foe Maritime on Saturday.
The Knights feature three players with at least 10 goals on the season and nine different players with at least 10 points. Senior
Destiny Ribadeneyra (Maybrook, N.Y.) leads the Knights scoring attack with team-highs in goals (19), assists (13), game winning goals (4) and points (51), while classmate
Bridget McKeever (Wallkill, N.Y.) ranks second on the team in goals (16), assists (10) and points (42).
Allison Jones (Merrick, N.Y.) rounds out the trio in double figure goals with 10 on the season and is third on the squad in both assists with five and points with 25. Freshman
Haley Murphy (Massapequa, N.Y.) has six goals heading in Wednesday, with
Mary Riley (Newburgh, N.Y.),
Jessica Lanning (Hicksville, N.Y.) and
Alexa Franceschi (Red Hook, N.Y.) also registering five tallies for the Mount.
Ribadeneyra leads the Skyline Conference in assists heading into the final week of the regular season and ranks second in the league in both goals and points. McKeever enters Wednesday third in both assists and points and fifth in the conference in goals.
Riley has put together a strong season in goal for the Knights, sporting a 0.98 goals against average and a .808 save percentage while making 59 stops. She is second in the Skyline Conference in both goals against average and save percentage. Riley is the league leader in shutouts with six.
Last Time Out: The Mount closed out the road schedule with a convincing 8-0 win at Maritime on Saturday. Ribadeneyra finished with a hat trick and eight points with Murphy and
Claire Newman (Cromwell, Conn.) each recording a goal an assist. Riley picked up her league leading sixth shutout of the season without making a save in the game.
Scouting The Rams: Farmingdale State comes to town with the top seed in the conference championship on the line with an identical 8-0 record in league play as the Knights. Farmingdale State has won five of its last six outings, including a win over previously unbeaten #24 Western Connecticut. The lone loss over that stretch came in a tight 1-0 defeat on the road at #4 William Smith that dropped the Rams to 11-6-2 overall.
Farmingdale State is outscoring its opponents 56-17 on the season and is led by 13 goals and 27 points from Taylor Howard. Brittany Starzee and Edasia Martinez have each scored six times for the Rams, with Martinez adding four assists for 16 points on the season.
In goal, Farmingdale State is led by Daniella Ford who has played 1,475:55 of a possible 1,768:31. She holdS a league best 0.976 goals against average and a league leading .812 save percentage. Ford is tied for second in the conference with four shutouts to her name and has stopped 69 opponent shots heading into Wednesday's contest.
Last Meeting: The two sides last hooked up in the 2016 Skyline Conference Championship Final, with the Rams claiming a 2-0 victory. Elizabeth Dasilva and Howard scored late in regulation for Farmingdale State and Ford made one save for the shutout.
What's Next: The Knights and Rams will be the top two seeds in the Skyline Conference Championship and will host semifinal round contests on November 1.
