By Heather Monahan
Features Editor
The women’s soccer team’s season came to a close Friday in Richmond, where they lost the semifinal game of the Atlantic 10 tournament.
The top-seeded Dayton Flyers (14-5-2) handed the fourth-seeded Bonnies a 4-1 loss despite SBU holding a 1-0 lead for the majority of the game. The women finished off the year with an 8-10-1 overall record and 4-4 conference record.
First year Head Coach Steve Brdarski said the season’s end was bittersweet after the team’s dreams of becoming A-10 Champions were crushed.
“Some people say, ‘Hey, you should be happy you got to the semifinals,’” Brdarski said. “But the goal of the team all year long was to win it. So we’re a little bit disappointed in the fact that we couldn’t do what we set out to do.”
Though Friday night didn’t yield the result they were looking for, the Bonnies are still proud of everything they achieved this season.
“Obviously, I wanted to go farther, but I think the last time we made it to the semis was my freshman year, so it was good to at least get back to that point,” senior defender Taylor Broderick said. “Our goal every year is to make it to the A-10s, to win the final. That was our goal this year but aside from that, I was just very proud of my team as a whole.”
Sophomore midfielder Alex Meador agreed and said she was happy with the team’s 1-0 victory against George Mason (7-11-1) in the quarterfinals last Thursday.
“Last year, we didn’t make it past the first round,” Meador said. “So it was super exciting to get one win.”
While most of Bonaventure has caught basketball fever already with the men’s and women’s seasons starting up, Twitter blew up Thursday and Friday with students supporting the women’s soccer team in the tournament.
“All the fans were crazy,” Meador said. “I looked forward to all the tweets and everyone Instagramming videos and everything. It was awesome.”
Sophomore forward Lauren Hill agreed and said seeing the support made her proud to be a Bonnie.
“The support was insane, it made me so happy to be at this school,” Hill said. “We’d all look at our phones after the game and be like ‘Oh my god, look at Twitter!’ The entire feed would be about us.”
According to Brdarski, seeing everything on Twitter and seeing goal celebrations really made the team feel the support.
“It was so great to see and hear so many people watching the game and getting excited when we scored,” he said. “It was pretty impeccable.”
Though the A-10 preseason poll picked the Bonnies to finish 13th in the conference by other A-10 coaches, Brdarski said no one paid attention to the negativity and the team displayed fighting spirit.
“We didn’t pick ourselves to get 13th,” Brdarski said. “Maybe we caused some people to look at us differently, but in terms of ourselves, that wasn’t the case. We always believed in ourselves.”
Sophomore forward Abby Maiello said it felt great making it to the semifinals after the low preseason ranking.
“You just don’t listen to what anyone says,” Maiello said. “It was awesome being there for us.”
Maiello, Hill and Meador all said they learned a huge lesson from dealing with adversity this season.
“It’s all about heart – that was our motto at the end,” Meador said. “Our school doesn’t have the most money, we don’t have the most players or anything like that. But we could still beat anyone.”
Looking to next season, Meador said she’s looking forward to being an upperclassman and providing some leadership on the team. Hill and Maiello said they expect the offseason will involve a lot of rebuilding.
“We’re losing five great seniors,” Maiello said.
“They’re tough to replace, but it’s definitely doable. We’ll all have to work hard in the offseason.”
Along with Broderick, the Bonnies will lose goalkeeper Megan Junker, midfielders Alyssa Lapp and Gina Baldwin and midfielder/defenders Jordan Calabria and Courtney Hoenicke to graduation.
With her time at Bonaventure coming to a close, Broderick said she’s thankful for the friendships she made and the people she’s met at the school.
“I looked at a lot of schools before coming here, and I never connected with any of the players until I came and visited here and knew this was where I wanted to be,” she said. “After four years, I think the bond I have with some of the girls is something that will be for the rest of my life.”
