Women's Soccer Clinches HVIAC Tournament Berth With Win Over Berkeley

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Led by a career-high four goals from sophomore Shannon Fahy (Breezy Point, N.Y./Bishop Kearney), the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's soccer team clinched the fourth and final seed in this weekend's HVIAC Tournament with a 5-1 win over Berkeley College on Tuesday night at the Aviator Sports Complex.

St. Joseph's (3-10, 3-3), the defending conference tournament champions, will play at Albany Pharmacy on Sunday in the semifinals of the season-ending tournament while Berkeley (3-3-1, 2-3-1) is eliminated from tournament contention with the loss.

The Lady Bears dominated early as they had ten shots in the first 30 minutes but were unable to capitalize on their chances which included a Pamela Chernyakhovsky (Brooklyn, N.Y./Leon M. Goldstein) shot hitting the crossbar just over five minutes into the action. The game would remain scoreless until the 33rd minute when Kerry Ann Houghton got Berkeley on the board taking a bouncing ball loose in the box and tapping it in to give the Knights a 1-0 with just under 12 minutes left before halftime.

Realizing the magnitude of the situation St. Joseph's regrouped and knotted up the score in the 38th minute when Fahy notched her first goal of the game on a breakaway chipping the ball over Berkeley goalkeeper Haddy Cessay.

The Lady Bears continued to apply pressure to the Knights backline peppering Cessay with 16 shots in the half forcing her to make seven saves. However, despite holding a 16-4 shot advantage St. Joseph's headed into the locker tied up with Berkeley at 1-1.

The pace slowed down to begin the second half with neither team recording many shots in the first 23 minutes of the period. Fahy would break the tie in the 69th minute, settling the ball off a Chernyakhovsky corner and firing it into the lower left part of the net to give the Lady Bears a 2-1 lead which proved to be the game-winner.

St. Joseph's tacked on insurance goal in the 86th minute as Fahy picked up her third hat trick of the season to give the Lady Bears a 3-1 lead.  Just a little over two minutes later freshman Jamilynn McGawan (Brooklyn, N.Y.) got in on the action scoring her first collegiate goal by heading in a ball off another Chernyakhovsky corner.

Fahy concluded the scoring for St. Joseph's less than a minute later, stealing the ball off a goal kick and placing it past Cessay for her career-high fourth on the day and her team-high 11th on the season.

Berkeley had no answers for the Lady Bears offensive attack as St. Joseph's finished the game with a 31-7 shot advantage.

Fahy finished the night with a career-high 11 shots on goal while Chernyakhovsky had two shots on goal and with her two assists she now has a team-high eight on the year. McGawan had a career-high two shots on goal for the Lady Bears. Senior Nicole Farinella (East Patchogue, N.Y./Bellport HS) made one save in net earning her third win of the year.

The Knights were led by Kerry Ann Houghton who had three shots on goal while Cessay made 14 saves in absorbing the loss.

St. Joseph's returns to action on Thursday, October 24th travelling to Washington, D.C. to face Washington Adventist with a start time of 4 p.m.