EASTON, Pa. – The Lafayette women's soccer team defeated Seton Hall in a non-conference match this evening at Mike Bourger '44 Field at Oaks Stadium. 
 
The Leopards' victory over Seton Hall was the first in program history over the Pirates and only the third in program history against a Big East conference member.  The other two victories against a Big East opponent were both against Villanova, mostly recently in 2018 when the Leopards defeated Villanova by a 1-0 score, and also in 1990 when Lafayette was victorious 4-0 over the Wildcats.

Less than two minutes into the match, Seton Hall fired the opening salvo of the contest. The Pirates' Emma Sheehan chipped a shot towards Lafayette senior goalkeeper Natalie Neumann which caused Neumann to make an acrobatic save, just avoiding falling into her own goal, to keep the Pirates off the board.  In the sixth minute, Lafayette had their first opportunity to score. A perfect cross by freshman April McDonald found senior Sara Oswald, but Oswald was not able to get her shot past Seton Hall goalkeeper Anna Prawer.

In the first half, the Pirates took five shots, of which two were on goal.  The Leopards had two shots, with one on goal. The match was still scoreless as the teams headed to their locker rooms at halftime. 

In the 55th minute, after peppering Prawer in the previous three minutes with two consecutive shots on goal, Lafayette's Oswald finally succeeded. McDonald picked the pocket of a Seton Hall player which gave Oswald a one on one opportunity with the Pirates' keeper.  Oswald fired a shot to the low left corner of the goal, and though Prawer got a piece of the shot, she was not able to stop it from going into the net and giving the Leopards a 1-0 lead. 

Lafayette's defense continued to stymie the Pirates' attack for the remainder of the second half.  Seton Hall did have one late opportunity on a shot by Riley Belser in the 88th minute, but Lafayette junior goalkeeper Lindsay Dewar made the save. In the second half, Lafayette had 3 shots, all on goal, of which one resulted in a goal. Seton Hall took six shots, of which two were on goal. 

Lafayette finished the evening with a total of five shots, four of which were on goal, and Seton Hall had 12 shots, with four on goal.
Oswald led the Leopards with four shots, all on goal, including the game winning goal for the Leopards.  Junior Kaia Deane took one shot. 

Neumann started the match for Lafayette and played the first 45 minutes, recording two saves.  She was replaced for the second half by Dewar who also recorded two saves.  Their Seton Hall counterpart, Prawer, played the full 90 minutes and recorded three saves.  

The Leopards travel to Philadelphia, Pa. on Sunday for a non-conference match against Drexel University at 1 p.m.