Offensive woes continue as Women’s Soccer falls to Saints
By Andrew Nowel, Editor-In-Chief
Coming off a 1–0 home loss to the Quinnipiac Bobcats on Saturday, the Canisius women’s soccer team traveled east to Loudonville, N.Y. to take on the Siena Saints. A tough competitor of the Blue and Gold every season, the Saints once again stumped the Griffs’ offense behind a shutout performance by Saints junior goalkeeper Cate Burns.
The Griffs came into Wednesday’s matchup scoring two goals in just two games through their first 10 games. The offense hasn’t needed to outscore their opponent in three of those games as freshman goalkeeper Alexa Turmel has posted a goose egg in all three, but with Burns on the other side of the field, Canisius would need scoring chances to break a nine–game winless streak against the Saints.
Neither team held possession for long in the first 15 minutes until the 19th minute, when Siena had the first scoring chance of the game. Senior midfielder Maya Costa capitalized on that chance, putting the Saints up 1–0, a deficit that, with 70 minutes left, didn’t cause the Griffs to panic. However, the Griffs couldn’t move the ball up the field to put pressure on Burns, and it led to another Siena chance and another Siena goal in the 33rd minute.
Already in a 2–0 hole, Canisius Head Coach Ryan Louis turned to the hero earlier in the season: junior Ava Pickard. She was able to find an opportunity to get the Griffs’ first shot off, giving the team momentum going into halftime.
Out of halftime, Canisius found better scoring chances, beginning with a shot from senior Jessica Whitaker. However, an onslaught of shots from the Saints quelled any chance of a comeback as the time wound down in what would end as a 2–0 defeat for the Griffs. Whitaker would tally two of the Griffs’ three shots on goal, all stopped by Burns.
Moving their overall record to 5–6 and Metro Conference record to 2–4, the Blue and Gold look to move forward from their two losses last week to their next opponent: the Marist Red Foxes. Marist comes in with a 4–2–1 Metro record, only falling to Quinnipiac and Fairfield, who take the third and first spots in the conference standings, so the test with the Red Foxes will not be an easy one for Louis’ team.
With six games remaining on the 2026 schedule, the Griffs are running out of time as they fight for a spot in the Metro tournament. Being outscored 13–9 in their 11 games is something the team focuses on this week in practice, but the time is now to implement it into a game scenario. However, the Griffs have already played three of the conference’s top-five heavy hitters, while the remaining schedule includes matchups against the bottom two teams in Merrimack and Saint Peter’s.
With the clock winding down, will the Griffs find the last minute goal or will they end their season just short of postseason play?
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