Women's Soccer | 9/6/2025 9:00:00 AM

Sunday, September 7 | Robert Morris | Loretto, Pa. | Stokes Soccerplex | 1 p.m. | LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO 
 

OPENING PITCH VS ROBERT MORRIS
Sunday's game between Saint Francis and Robert Morris at 1 p.m., marks the 33rd meeting in the all-time series. The last time the Red Flash matched up with the Colonials was in 2023. 

THE WORD ON THE COLONIALS
Robert Morris enters Sunday's match up 2-2. In their opening match of the season, the Colonials lost to Navy 3-0, followed by a pair of losses to Southern Indiana (2-0) and Canisius (1-0), and another loss to Eastern Michigan 2-0. In their latest game, Bowling Green defeated Robert Morris 2-1. Madison Hurst leads the Colonials with two goals, Paloma Swankler and Sydney Chontos each have one.

LAST TIME WE MET
During the 2023 match up between the two teams, the Red Flash fell 4-1. Lauren Pyle scored for Saint Francis during the 88th minute, and goalkeeper, Julianna Marshall, made three saves.

NEXT TIME OUT 
Next up, Saint Francis will begin a series of road trips and travel to Lexington, Va., Sunday to take on VMI's Keydets. at 2 p.m, followed by conference competitors Stonehill (Sept. 21) and LIU (Sept. 25).

LAST TIME OUT 
Saint Francis women's soccer hosted Bucknell for its home opener Thursday. The Red Flash fell to the Bison 4-1. Emma Sawich had a career high of 16 saves and Raine Korpics scored her first goal of the 2025 season.

NEC HONORS
Riley Kerr has been named the NEC Rookie of the Week. It is the first time in her career that he has earned a weekly conference honor. Kerr scored her first collegiate goal in a 1-all draw against Cleveland State on Thursday. Kerr's goal was the first goal of the 2025 season for the Red Flash. In her high school career, Kerr had 122 goals. Kerr marks the third time a Saint Francis women's soccer player has been named NEC Rookie of the Week under head coach Brian Diaz. It is the first time since Alyssa Mella on September 23, 2024, won this honor. Kerr, Anouk Landgraff, Raine Korpics, all a part of the current women's soccer roster, have won this honor to this distinction.  

PRESEASON POLL
Saint Francis women's soccer was picked seventh in the NEC Preseason Poll. Howard, the defending NEC Tournament Champions, picked up seven of the 12 first-place votes to garner preseason favorite honors. FDU earned four votes for second and Wagner earned the final vote to rank third in the poll. CCSU, Stonehill, LIU, Saint Francis, Mercyhurst, Le Moyne, New Haven, Chicago State and Delaware State rounded out the poll. 

RETURNERS TO TALK ABOUT
Korpics returns for her final year as the team's top returning scorer after posting three goals and an assist for seven points. Mercedez Paino also registered two goals for four points last season. Emma Sawich returns in between the pipes after posting 98 saves, a 1.24 goals against average, and a .824 saves percentage that was tops in the NEC in 2024. Lauren Persichetty, 2023 NEC Defensive Player of the Year, made her return to the field and starting lineup after suffering a preseason injury in 2024.

WELCOME TO THE LO' 
In the season opener at Maryland, four Dukes earned their first collegiate starts: Meredith Artz (Monroe Township, N.J./Monroe Township), Hayden Barry (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown West), Kaitlyn Dempster (Oakland Township, Mich./Rochester Adams), and Hayley Smith (Bargersville, Ind./Center Grove). Off the bench, Riley Kerr (Greensburg, Pa./Greensburg Central Catholic), Ashlyn Fetterman (Hollsopple, Pa./Conemaugh Township), and Angelina Kasak (Lemont, Pa./Pennsylvania Charter) also made their collegiate debuts in College Park. 

In addition, junior Lucia Johnson (Cincinnati, Ohio/Eastern Michigan) made her Saint Francis starting debut. Johnson almost has a six-degrees of Kevin Bacon story. The first time she played a college soccer game was an exhibition game on the Stokes SoccerPlex with the Zips on August 8, 2023. Johnson has played 23 games in her first two seasons with 10 shots. She registered her first collegiate assist against her former Akron team in Ohio as a member of Eastern Michigan on October 31, 2024, for the decisive score. Johnson was a two-time all-conference and all-region player at Turpin High School in Cincinnati. 

Also joining the team is assistant coach Clare Crossley and graduate assistant Ioannis Giannikakis.    

ABOUT THE COACH 
Brian Diaz begins his second season in Loretto. The team doubled its win total from the previous campaign in his first season and helped the team to its best defensive season since 2012. Diaz brought four years of head coach experience from the Division II level, 17 years as an assistant coach (13 years at Division I and four years at Division II), and one year as the Director of Coaching for the Columbus Crew SC in Major League Soccer. In his career, he has coached 54 all-conference selections and 21 all-region honorees.