ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy women's soccer team will return to the friendly confines of the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility this weekend for a pair of non-conference bouts. Coming off a two-game road trip to Texas that saw the Mids (0-2) drop a pair of one-goal decisions to UTSA and Rice, the squad will look to break into the win column at home with a Thursday afternoon tilt versus Sacred Heart (0-1) at 4 p.m. and a Saturday night showdown against FDU (0-0-1) starting at 7 p.m. 

All of the women's soccer action this week will have live stats provided online, as well as ESPN+ broadcasts. ESPN+ is a subscription-based streaming service that requires patrons to sign-up for monthly or yearly plans prior to tuning into the contest.

Navy at Glenn Warner Soccer Facility
Thursday night begins the 24th season of soccer at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility. All-time, the women's soccer team is 185-53-27 (.749) over 265 home games since 2001 ... The Mids were 5-3-2 (.667) at Glenn Warner last season ... The program has posted winning seasons in 21 of 23 years with only 2016 (3-6-1) and 2020-21 (2-2-1) as outliers.

Happy to Be Home
Opening the season with back-to-back road games was a first for Navy since 2014 when the Mids started their campaign with a 1-0 loss at UMBC followed by a 2-1 loss at UConn; after two more games at USF (T, 1-1) and Stetson (W, 3-1), the program rattled off an 11-2-4 mark over the rest of the season.

New Faces in New Places
The opening weekend of action in the Lone Star State saw six different Midshipmen make their first-ever Opening Day start: GK Talley Applewhite (4 previous starts); F Chiara Cosenza (2 previous starts); D Emma Romano (7 previous starts); M Ande Swan (Fr. - 0 previous starts); D Lauren Toms (Fr. - 0 previous starts); D Jordan Townsend (17 previous starts)

Navy vs. Sacred Heart | Navy vs. FDU 
The Mids begin this week's double dip with a first-time matchup against Sacred Heart ... A first-year member of the MAAC after joining the conference from the NEC, the Pioneers are based out of Fairfield, Connecticut ... In addition to Sacred Heart, Navy will play a total of two MAAC programs as it'll travel to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. for a showdown at Marist College on Sept. 1 ... All-time, the Mids are 26-2-1 in 29 games versus MAAC opposition: Fairfield (0-1; 9/24/00 - L, 4-3), Iona (1-0; 9/15/13 - W, 3-0), Manhattan (1-0; 9/12/10 - W, 5-0), Mount St. Mary's (15-0; M.R. 9/10/21 - W, 2-1), Niagara (1-1, M.R. 8/28/22 - L, 1-0), Quinnipiac (1-0; 9/25/05 - W, 2-0), Rider (4-0-1; M.R. 9/7/12 - W, 3-0), Saint Peter's (1-0; 9/4/07 - W, 4-0), Siena (2-0; M.R. 9/24/06 - W, 4-0)

The Navy-FDU series is two games deep as the Mids have defeated the Knights twice before ... The initial meeting was on Aug. 28, 2009 at home, Navy won 6-0 ... The most recent meeting, which began this home-and-home series came on Sept. 4, 2022 and saw the Mids win 1-0 in Teaneck, N.J. on an Olivia Foster game-winner in the 70th minute ... All-time, Navy is 33-0-2 against NEC opposition.

Most Recent Navy-FDU Matchup: September 4, 2022 in Teaneck, N.J.
The Navy women's soccer team collected its first road win of the season with a 1-0 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson on Sunday afternoon. Playing on the scorching turf of University Stadium, the Mids (3-2-2) received a game-winning goal by team captain Olivia Foster in the 70th minute and saw junior goalkeeper Mattie Gallagher turn aside six shots on goals by the Knights (0-6) to earn the shutout.

The Mids controlled most of the action in the first half, but were unable to put that one last touch on their final pass or shot towards goal as the visitors registered eight shots, though only two were on goal. Gallagher and Navy's defense did their job in the first half as Fairleigh Dickinson only took four total shots, though two made their way on frame, both of which were saved by Gallagher.
 
Locked in a 0-0 stalemate through one half of action, the Knights were active in the first five minutes of the second stanza as twice they tested Gallagher with shots on goal. The Mids had a rebuttal for that early run of play as ten minutes later, Chloe Dawson and Caitlin Doran each forced Malene Nielsen, FDU's goalkeeper, into action with difficult shots on goal.
 
With the game clock counting down towards 20 minutes left, Navy's consistent pressure resulted in the first score of the contest at 69:57. Set up for a corner kick, Kat Healey lofted a deep, high-arching cross into the middle of the box to Rylee Rives, who leapt up and flicked a header deeper into the box towards Foster, who gathered the ball on one bounce and whipped a shot into the back of the net.
 
Gallagher made one more save in the game to seal the shutout as she stopped a Lea Egner shot on goal in the 75th minute. In her third clean sheet of 2022, Gallagher was credited with six saves on Sunday afternoon.
 
For the game, Navy outshot Fairleigh Dickinson, 15-10, though the Knights held a slight 6-5 edge in shots on goal. The hosts also had one more corner kick opportunity than the Mids.

Returning Leaders

(2023 Stats)	Navy	SHU	FDU
Goals	Cosenza/Riddle/I. Romano, 4	Bovardi/O'Hara, 8	Cardaba/Salas, 5
Assists	Graziano, 6	McShea, 5	Salas, 3
Points	I. Romano, 12	O'Hara, 20	Salas, 13
Shots	Riddle, 42	Bovardi, 41	Salas, 44
GK Saves	Applewhite, 4	Thievon, 36	N/A

Last Time Out: August 18 at Rice
 The Navy women's soccer team wrapped up its two-game road trip to Texas with a 2-1 loss at Rice on Sunday afternoon. Dealing with stifling temperatures that made it feel like 106 and seven graduate or seniors in the Owls' starting lineup, the Mids found themselves in a back-and-forth battle at Holloway Field that saw Rice (2-0) go up 1-0 in the 25th minute before Navy (0-2) fired back less than three minutes with a game-tying tally by Hannah Mulholland. A transition goal in the 71st minute by the Owls stood up as the game-winner.

Early on, the Mids controlled the majority of the possession and chances in the attacking third, but were stonewalled in the shot department over the first 12 minutes. While struggling with long-lasting possessions, the Owls registered the first shot on goal of the game when Leah Chancey hit her cross long and onto frame. With not much pace on it, Talley Applewhite snared the ball for a save. Seven minutes later, she made her second save of the contest as she turned aside a Mikala Furuto attempt.

The momentum that Rice had been building over the previous 10 minutes paid off in the 25th minute when the hosts intercepted a goal kick and quickly turned the ball around into the offensive third where an odd-man rush resulted in a square lay-off from Jules Johnston and Allie Love to Kallie McKinney, who one-timed her shot into the back of the net at 24:47.

Down, but not out, Navy had an immediate response as Mimi Abusham lofted a long throw-in into the 18-yard box and after a slight deflection off a Rice defender, Mulholland secured the ball and ripped a shot in the lower left corner past the Owls' goalkeeper at 27:26.

Coming out of locker room knotted at 1-1, the Owls were on a mission and aggressive as they put two shots on goal against the Mids' new goalkeeper Natasha Stramrood. The freshman back-stop was up to the task and made two saves in quick succession. Navy's best look during this early run of second-half play came just over two minutes later when Emma Romano dribbled up from her defensive position and unleashed an initial shot that was blocked before recovering the loose ball and launching a shot just over the crossbar.

The Mids kept their foot on the offensive pedal as in the 58th minute, Amanda Graziano controlled a bounding ball following her corner kick and dribbled in off the wing before ripping a shot on goal, that forced Faith Hutchins to leap up and bat away for her first official save of the game.

Rice netted the go-ahead goal when it caught Navy's defense too high during a transition in the 71st minute. After intercepting a pass near midfield, Naija Bruckner and Taylor Rish connected a pair of quick passes together before playing Natalie Gorji into space for a one-on-one. Realizing she need to force the action with 30 yards of free space, Stramrood sprinted in off her line and forced Gorji to chip her late. Unfortunately for the Mids, the shot dropped into the gapping goal mouth to make it 2-1.

For the game, Rice out-shot Navy, 21-12 with a 14-4 advantage in shots on goal. The host Owls also recorded 11 of the game's 15 total corner kicks.
In goal, Stramrood turned aside a career-high seven shots on goal, while Applewhite made five saves in the first half.