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By Joseph Staszewski
Brooklyn Daily
It didn’t take long for the Brooklyn College women’s soccer team to make history.
The No. 2 seeded Bulldogs earned the team’s first CUNY Athletic Conference title in just its second year of existence, with a 3–1 win over No. 1 College of Staten Island last Sunday. It also got Brooklyn College a berth in the Division III NCAA tournament.
Brooklyn College coach Patrick Horne chalked it up to hard work.
“Today’s performance shows how far we’ve come as a team over this season,” he said. “We worked hard each game and practice and today was a culmination of our hard work.”
Brooklyn College got on the board in the 13th minute when Bergelie Louis scored to make it 1–0. The College of Staten Island evened things up when Samantha Wysokowski headed a corner kick from Melissa Gelardi in the 18th minute. Jordan Kerwin scored the eventual winner with a left-foot shot after a feed from former Telecommunications star Salya Flores in the second half.
The Bulldogs extended its advantage when Flores fed Brooklyn native Shani Abrahams for a goal late in the second half. Flores was proud of her team’s performance.
“Playing with your head and never giving up will take you to the top,” he said. “That is what we all did today and what we will continue to do as a team.”
The victory shows just how far Brooklyn College has come as a program. It went just 6–7–1 last season, but turned things around to go 15–3–0 this year. The Bulldogs lost both regular season meetings to the Dolphins, the second was 3–2 in overtime. That didn’t keep the Bulldogs from winning the most important of the three.
“This win is a dream come true,” said Brooklyn College defender Janet Rodriguez.
The magical ride continues into the NCAA tournament. Brooklyn College visits Centennial Conference champion Johns Hopkins, the No. 5 ranked Division-III team in the country at 11 am on Nov. 16. The Bulldogs will look add another first with a victory.
“Our team is always looking forward to the next challenge,” Horne said. “The first one was to make the CUNYAC tournament. Then we aimed to win the championship. Now our challenge is to try to become the first women’s team in conference history to win an NCAA tournament game.”