St. John’s soccer ties with Cornell entering Big East play

St. John’s soccer play to scoreless draw in non-conference finale with Cornell. 

Over the weekend, the St. John’s soccer program closed out its non-conference slate with a scoreless draw against Cornell.

It was the Red Storm’s second straight game on the road after falling to Lehigh on September 11.

Both teams had its opportunities in the game with five combined shots on goal, 19 overall in this contest.

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The teams struggled to get any sort of rhythm and generate any opportunties on net for the first 15 minutes. Cornell would control most of the first half until the Johnnies put togther some good passage of play to end the half, firing off three shots but none of them found its mark.

Junior midfielder Ava Collins had the best look of the game in the 75th minute as the New Zealand native fired a shot from the top of the box, forcing a diving save from substitute goalie Erica Fox.

Goalkeeper Gina Muzi earned her third clean sheet of the season, making three saves in the contest.

St. John’s soccer looking to enter conference play strong

The dull draw sends St. John’s into Big East play with a 3-2-3 record and the Red Storm will start off conference play with a tough matchup.

The Johnnies will continue their recent road trip and take on perennial powerhouse No. 17 Georgetown on Thursday at 7:00pm to open up conference play.

This will be a massive test for St. John’s to judge where the program is after last year’s steallar run and a post-Zsani Kajan offense which is so far 7th in the Big East with 11 goals in eight games.

St. John’s only has two wins all-time against Georgetown with the last one coming back in 2014.

The program has never beaten Georgetown as the road team in its matchups, and the last result the Johnnies got the Hoyas was a scoreless draw in 2016.

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In order for St. John’s to reverse historical trends, the playmakers in Jessica Garziano and Ava Collins, in particular, have to step up and create the offense to break through the Hoya defense.

The defense is going to need to have a perfect game, focusing on stopping freshman breakout sensation Henley Tippins who has five goals in six apperances this season, as well as newly minted Big East Offensive Player of the Week Gia Vicari.

Vicari  has three goals and three assists on the season.

Georgetown comes in with a 4-1-3 record this season after three straight clean sheet victories over Columbia (2-0), William & Mary (3-0), and West Virginia (2-0).

The Hoyas’ only blemish was to No. 8 Virginia by a 1-0 scoreline on August 25.

Georgtown also took down St. John’s 1-0 in last year’s Big East Championship Game, the most recent matchup, ending the Johnnies’ Cinderella in the tournament before making another run in the NCAA Tournament on its way to a Sweet 16.