Red Storm Tallies First Win Of The Season, 2-1 At George Mason

FAIRFAX, Va. - Not to be discouraged by the half-played game that was rescheduled and started from scratch due to lightning on Sunday, the St. John's women's soccer team was victorious against George Mason on Monday night with a 2-1 win at George Mason Field.

Originally scheduled for Sunday afternoon, the Red Storm's game vs. the Patriots was moved to Monday evening after lightning and summer storms rolled into the Fairfax, Va., area. St. John's (1-1) was ahead 1-0 through 56 minutes of action before the game was postponed and rescheduled. Because the contest did not reach 70 minutes, Monday's game started from 0-0.

"Today's win showed a lot of character," remarked St. John's head coach Ian Stone. "After a long, extended weekend on the road, I though the team showed a lot of mental strength and were able to possess the ball well and score."

Senior Jen Leaverton got the Red Storm on the board first, in a repeat performance from Sunday afternoon as her shot cleared Patriot goalkeeper, Lyndsey Hokanson to the left corner. Leaverton's goal came in the 12th minute as the Red Storm converted junior Runa Stefansdottir's corner kick. Stefansdottir inbounded the ball to Leaverton who made her first attempt with a header to the cross bar. The ball rebounded and junior Patrice Casimir kept it alive and passed it to Leaverton who pushed into the goal.

Both teams were scoreless through the next 60 minutes of play, until St. John's extended its lead to 2-0 in the 72nd minute as rookie Deanna Murino scored her first-career goal. Stefansdottir was part of the action once again as she sent a through pass to Murino. The freshman beat out the George Mason defender one-on-one and took her shot to the near post for the goal. George Mason (0-1) answered one minute later as Kelly Pizzingrilli connected on a free kick from Kelly Thomas.With the score at 2-1, George Mason could only get off one more shot after a corner kick in the 80th minute. Red Storm senior goalkeeper Kristin Russell (1-1) made the save to keep St. John's with the one-goal advantage. St. John's got off two shots in the final 15 minutes of play.Both St. John's and George Mason were even on the shot count, with each team tallying 13. With the Patriots holding a 5-4 advantage on shots on goal, it was Russell who kept the Red Storm alive as she recorded for saves in the win. Hokanson had two. St. John's had 10 shots in the first period.The first win of the season was a quality one, as George Mason went to the Colonial Athletic Association Semifinals and finished third in the conference overall.St. John's will have three days off before hosting local-rival Fordham in the Belson Stadium home-opener on Friday, Aug. 26. Game time is slated for 7 p.m. Live stats and live video will be provided on RedStormSports.com. Visit www.twitter.com/stj_wsoccer for all Red Storm women's soccer twitter updates. Use the hash tag #stjwsoc.