St. Bonaventure

ITHACA, N.Y. – Despite a second-half surge, the St. Bonaventure women's soccer team was unable to pull even with Cornell on Thursday afternoon, falling 3-2 on the road amidst inclement conditions.
 
The Big Red (1-0) set the tone during a rainy first half with goals in the 34th and 43rd minutes. Though the hosts added to their tally coming out of the midway break, the Bonnies (1-1), who were held scoreless to that point, refused to go down quietly.
 
Bonaventure had its first look to begin a comeback early in the second half when freshman Moran Moscovici collected a pass outside of the box and fired a shot which sailed just over the crossbar.
 
From that moment on, the Bonnies continued to apply pressure and were eventually rewarded in the 75th minute.
 
As freshman Jada Lloyd leaped to receive a header in the box, she was tripped up by a Cornell defender, resulting in a penalty kick opportunity for fellow freshman Liana Tata. The Rochester native capitalized to put the Bonnies on the board, scoring her first collegiate goal to the right side of the net as Big Red goalkeeper Sofia Kerrigan dove left. 
 
SBU furthered its momentum just six minutes later when junior Hannah Smith dashed down the sideline and found freshman Aoife Murphy with a pass just before the home defense closed in. Murphy then buried a shot from a tough angle, bringing the Brown and White within one and notching the first goal of her collegiate career to match Tata's achievement.
 
As the skies began to clear, the Bonnies urgently pushed for a game-tying score with multiple potential-filled runs downfield, but Cornell bolstered its defense and allowed the clock to tick down to zeroes. Despite the late scare for the home crowd, SBU was unable to overcome a first half with just two shots recorded and picked up its first loss of the 2026 season.
 
First-year Bona's goalkeeper Callie Turpin saw her first action at the college level as she earned her first career start, playing the full 90 minutes and making five saves in that time.
 
QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH RAY LEONE
"Cornell was an excellent team today, but I'm proud of our resilience. For us to climb back into the game down 3-0 and make it 3-2 showed a lot of character."

UP NEXT
The Bonnies will return to the Marra Athletics Complex this Sunday at 1:00 p.m. to host Little Three rival Canisius.
 
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