AMHERST, N.Y. (Oct. 7, 2017) – Led by the game-winning goal in the 86th minute from senior Heidi Serna (West Covina, Calif./South Hills), the Mercy College women's soccer team earned their eighth straight win with a 3-2 victory over Daemen College on Saturday afternoon at Karrer Field.
The Mavericks (10-1, 4-0 ECC) remain unbeaten in ECC play and the eight-game win streak is the longest since 2014, while the Wildcats (6-4-1, 2-3 ECC) fall below .500 in ECC play.
Serna added an assist and recorded her fourth goal of the season. Junior Corinna Ferrante (Patchogue, N.Y./Patchogue-Medford) contributed her fifth goal of the season and redshirt sophomore RaeAnn Ioannou (Bethpage, N.Y./Plainedge) netted her second goal of the season. Redshirt junior Ileen Mejia (Whittier, Calif./La Mirada) and sophomores Ally Boots (Yorba Linda, Calif./Esperanza) and Jessica Brandt (Folsom, Calif./Folsom) all recorded assists. Freshman Melissa Torres (La Mirada, Calif./La Mirada) made the start in net and played the first half with four saves before giving way to senior Ashley Price (Goodyear, Ariz./Millennium) who made three saves and earned the win.
Daemen received goals from Jamie Boyar and Alex Juliano. Goalkeeper Katelin White made six saves to take the loss.
Mercy looked to continue their win streak and got off to a strong start as Ferrante scored in the 24th minute to put the Mavericks ahead 1-0. The junior received a pass from Serna and shot from the top of the box with the shot going off the left post and in to give Mercy an early lead.
It remained 1-0 until the 31st minute when the Wildcats scored to tie the game up at 1-1. Boyar scored off a feed from Lindsay Ciaramella with the shot inside the far right post. Ferrante responded with a shot on goal just seconds later before the Mavericks retook the lead on a goal from Ioannou. The redshirt sophomore scored off a set piece on a corner kick taken by Mejia with the shot coming from the top of the box through traffic and into the net, giving Mercy a 2-1 lead in the 34th minute.
It remained 2-1 in favor of the Mavericks heading into halftime with Mercy holding an 8-7 edge in shots.
The second half saw the Wildcats waste little time in squaring up the contest as Juliano followed up a Boyar shot that was stopped by Price to tie the game up at 2-2 just 1:12 into the second half. The score stayed 2-2 heading into the last ten minutes of regulation and overtime looked like a possibility. However, the Mavericks continued their late game heroics as Serna scored off a free kick that was touched by Boots before Serna fired a one-timer into the back of the net to put Mercy ahead 3-2 in the 86th minute.
The Mavericks held on the rest of the way with Price making a save with less than a minute left to give Mercy another victory in the final minutes of play.
Mercy held a 21-13 edge in shots and a 6-1 advantage in corner kicks.
Head Coach Jonathan Feinstein and the Mavericks look to make it nine wins in a row when they host Molloy College on Wednesday, October 11th at 3 p.m.
