By Michael Del Genio
Entering the homecoming game against Marian University, the women’s soccer team stood at 1-3-1 and 0-1 in conference. Despite the rough start the team remained unfazed and ready for the big day.
Senior captain Kamryn Klinger shares her excitement regarding the homecoming game, “All of our families are here, a bigger crowd out there, so there’s something to play for bigger than just our team.”
Gianna Stanek, a sophomore transfer, had her goals set high for her first homecoming game, “A W, we’re looking for that, we’re trying to run them first five minutes 2-0.” Her mentality became reality as it took less than twenty minutes to score three goals.
At the 13’ minute mark, junior defender Mackenzie Cuddihy took a long shot from midfield that deflected off the crossbar and into the net for the first goal of her career at Dominican and the first goal of the game.
“It felt pretty good, I took the opportunity and it went in,” Cuddihy humbly puts, “this game is definitely going to build the confidence, build the energy, we’re gonna keep scoring goals, we got it.”
Her goal struck energy within not only the many fans attending, but also the team, as well as senior forward Sierra Rioux, who assisted on the goal, snuck one through the net at the 16’ minute mark.
Rioux earned Star of the Match honors for her homecoming performance: “This was my first goal of the season, felt really good to have all my hard work pay off and to get a 3-0 win.” Sierra would go on to assist senior Mia Taullahu at the near 19’ minute mark for the third and final goal of the game.
The Stars were hot in the first half and shut down the Marian offense to three total shots in the game. Coach Carillo praised “the effort that we put into the gameplan and the execution to it. That was a complete execution of a gameplan.” Carillo’s focus remains on “continuing to work on what we do, our possession, creating opportunities, coming out with a gameplan and making sure we’re executing it.”
Since the homecoming win, the Stars now sit at 4-3-1 overall and 2-1 in conference with a 1-0 win against Illinois Wesleyan University and a dominating 7-0 win at Rockford University.
