ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – The St. Bonaventure women's soccer team dropped their Atlantic 10 Conference home opener Sunday afternoon. Massachusetts used an early goal to earn three points on the road in a 1-0 victory.
 
Prior to kickoff, St. Bonaventure honored the Class of 2025 senior class of Chiara Gottinger, Chanel Alexander, Thea Juul, Savanna Mondesir-Singh, Elisabeth Ptacek, Sydney Hayward, Kristin Pickard, Bridget Kennedy and Kendall Stansbury.
 
Massachusetts controlled possession early in the opening stanza, taking their first shot on goal in the 6^th minute.
 
The Minutewomen (6-3-1, 1-1-0 A-10) got on the board first in the 17^th minute off a set-piece. Off a corner, Chandler Pedolzky tapped home a shot from Ashley Lamond to give UMass the 1-0 advantage early on.
 
St. Bonaventure (1-8-1, 0-2-0 A-10) spent much of the first 45 minutes on their defensive end with Bona keeper Chiara Gottinger making four saves in the first half.
 
Opening the second half, the Bonnies were able to control possession more, taking their first shot of the game in the 50^th minute. Freshman Maya Marolly found Thea Juul unmarked at the top of the 18-yard box and Juul fired a shot that was saved by the UMass keeper.
 
The Bonnies continued their search for an equalizer in the second half as they earned a corner in the 66^th minute. A short pass was played out to Hannah Walker. Walker sent a cross into the box that Sydney Hayward netted but was disallowed on an offsides decision.
 
Freshman Torrie Grant-Clavijo and Marolly each took a shot on goal in the 75^th minute and both were saved by the Minutewomen goalie.
 
Unable to find an equalizer in the final 15 minutes, the Bonnies fall to 0-2 in conference play.
 
Gottinger finished the game with a season-high 12 saves.
 
QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH DONNY GEORGE
"I'm a coach who believes my players' experience is important, and I decided to start all my seniors. For me, to give our seniors a good send off was really important."
 
"I thought the first half was well-fought. We conceded a goal, but outside of that goal, I think we had the better chances overall if you look at the whole game."
 
"Our game plan in the first half was to be very hard to beat. If you look at the games in two halves, we conceded shots in the first half, but we don't feel like they were shots from areas that Chiara couldn't deal with."
 
"In the second half, I thought we dominated. We were a very good team. We were very forward-thinking, and more of our creative players were on the field, but we were unlucky not to put the ball in the net."
  
UP NEXT
The Bonnies travel to VCU next Sunday, Sept. 29 for a 1:00 p.m. kickoff

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