The American International College women's soccer team opens the second season with the Northeast-10 Championship Quarterfinals against seventh-seeded Le Moyne at Abdow Field.

HOW THEY GOT HERE: The Yellow Jackets finished the regular season 11-7-0, including a 9-5-0 mark in non-conference play. Selected third in the Northeast-10 Preseason Coaches' Poll, the Yellow Jackets had high expectations, but struggled out of the gate with losses against regional powers Bridgeport and LIU Post. A win at Mercy College righted the ship just in time to open conference play, where they visited Southern New Hampshire and walked away from the Queen City 1-0 winners. That was the start of a 6-0-0 run in conference play which included a 1-0 victory against arch-rival Saint Rose. The team faced adversity with tough losses against Saint Michael's and Southern Connecticut, but bounced back to topple then-number four Stonehill. By the end of the campaign, AIC had proven to possess an amazing defense, surrendering a paltry 12 goals in league play, the fewest of any team.

The Dolphins ended the regular season at 9-7-1, with a 7-6-1 Northeast-10 record under first year head coach Carrie Bonus. Selected thirteenth in the Coaches' Poll, it was clear the Dolphins had something to prove as they started the year with wins against Roberts Wesleyan and Daemen before opening conference play with a scoreless tie against New Haven. However, the second half of September was not kind to the league's westernmost team, as they dropped four out of five to end the month, with only a win against Saint Anselm on their record to begin October. Then, they found their legs, upending Southern New Hampshire and Pace before dropping tough matches against Adelphi and Southern Connecticut. Needing points late, the Dolphins surged, winning three straight and then knocking Stonehill down to fourth on the season's final day to force their way into the postseason for just the second time in the last ten years.

SCOUTING THE DOLPHINS: Le Moyne is a case study in Jeykll-and-Hyde. In nine of their seventeen games, the Dolphins conceded no goals (five times) or just once (four times). However, they have also allowed three or more goals four times. Likewise, the team has five games with three or more goals for, including a 7-0 wipeout of Daemen, but four games where they managed one tally and three games in which they were kept completely scoreless. Their 25 goals for in conference play stands third-best, but their 23 allowed is the fifth-worst mark and second-to-last among postseason teams. Even their record reflects this, as the team is 7-1-1 at home but 2-6-0 on the road. Five players scored at least four times this year for the Dolphins, led by Rachel Terry's 13 goals, second best in the NE-10. Kirsten Colgrove has fired 66 shots and has just two tallies to show for it, but she leads the team and the conference with 11 assists. Goalkeeper Anastasija Cumika has a .772 SV% in conference play, and has seen all but 15 minutes of total game time for the Dolphins.

SCOUTING THE YELLOW JACKETS: Defense and goaltending has always been how AIC has won games, and this year is no exception. Only once, at conference-leading Adelphi, did the team concede three goals in a game, while the Jackets blanked seven opponents and allowed only one goal seven times more out of eighteen games. Opponents rarely even approach the net, as the Jackets allowed a league-low 60 total shots on goal, or 3.3 per game. However, the offense sputtered at times, averaging just 1.22 goals per game, third-lowest in the league and ahead of only New Haven and Saint Michael's, who finished at the bottom of the table. Federica Frew paces the offense with five goals, but she makes them matter, with four going for game-winners. Behind her, Johanna Englund has three tallies and fourother Jackets have a pair of goals. Madison Brown has seen the vast majority of the time in net, and her 0.69 GAA is the league's tops.

LAST TIME OUT: On Senior Day, it was AIC's longest-serving player, graduate student Merissia Phipps, delivering the winning tally as AIC downed Molloy by a final of 2-0. Phipps took a pass from senior Jessica Margaretta and ripped it into the left corner of the cage in the thirty-sixth minute to put AIC up 1-0. AIC added to the lead on a corner kick as graduate back Miko Iida, who took the initial cross, cut across to the right side of the box and struck the rebound off the left post and into the net for her first of the year with just under twenty seconds remaining in the half. Brown earned her sixth shutout of the year with a pair of saves.

Needing a win to get into the playoffs and facing a tough Stonehill team, the Dolphins poured shots at the net in a 2-1 win over the Skyhawks on their own Senior Day. Colegrove earned assists on both of the Dolphins goals, dishing to Terry for the opening tally in the thirty-fifth minute and taking the corner that was headed into the cage by Kelsi Fredericks in the sixty-second minute. That second goal proved crucial as the Skyhawks pressed, ultimately scoring in the seventy-fourth minute to bring the score to 2-1. Cumika only faced one more chance on target after, however, as the Dolphins held a 22-10 shot advantage in the game, and the win elevated the team to seventh place.

LAST TIME THEY MET: AIC handed the Dolphins one of their worst defeats of the year, blasting in four goals in a 4-1 win in Springfield on September 28. Jessica Margaretta connected with Isabella Burns for a goal just 7:07 into the match and AIC dominated the shot chart in the initial 45 minutes as the Dolphins failed to even manage a shot attempt. The opportunistic Le Moyne squad lit a spark in the second half, as Colgrove fed a pass to Stephanie Liberati to send her in on a breakaway, scoring a stunning equalizer on their first bid of the game at 47:46. The tie lasted fewer than two minutes as Federica Frew replied to put AIC ahead for good, and Johanna Nilsson and Linnea Herbertsson added goals to ensure the home squad would rule the day.

ALL-TIME SERIES: American International leads the all-time series with Le Moyne at 10-9-1, including a 6-4-0 mark at home. The two teams first met in 1997, a 2-0 win for AIC, and the Jackets won the first four meetings before Le Moyne won eight straight from 2001-2008. Since a 1-1 tie in 2009, however, the Dolphins are just 1-6-0 against AIC. The two teams have never met in postseason play.

AROUND THE CONFERENCE: The other three matchups in the playoff bracket are as follows: top-seeded Adelphi (11-2-1 NE-10) hosts eighth-seeded Southern New Hampshire (7-6-1 NE-10), third-seeded Southern Connecticut (8-4-2 NE-10) hosts sixth-seeded Pace (7-5-2 NE-10), and fourth-seeded Stonehill (8-5-1) hosts fifth-seeded Saint Rose (8-6-0).

Southern New Hampshire is hoping history repeats itself, and quickly, as the Penmen won 3-1 over the Panthers in the regular season finale for both teams in Manchester. Sydney Crema broke a scoreless tie in the last minute of the first half on a rebound before conference-leading goal scorer Morgan Santoro equalized with a free-kick that she fired bar-down and in in the sixty-first minute. The Penmen countered less than eight minutes later as Miranda Peloquin scored the winner, and then added an assist on a Shae Roys goal in the eighty-seventh minute. The Penmen held an 8-6 shots-on-goal edge in the game despite Adelphi's 9-1 advantage in corners.

Southern Connecticut needed late-game heroics and overtime to defeat Pace 2-1 in their regular-season meeting on September 20 in New Haven. Pace's Gabby Picciano tallied at the 44-minute mark and the lead looked as if it would hold until Brianna Casey leveled the game with just four minutes left. That set the stage for Caroline Staudle to net the winner just 2:46 into the extra session. The Owls outshot the setters 7-4 on-goal in the game and had all four corner kicks.

Stonehill dealt Saint Rose the worst defeat in the history of the Golden Knights women's soccer program, an 8-1 blowout win in Easton. Taylor Shannahan opened the scoring in the fourteenth minute, and the Skyhawks would pile up five goals before the half ended, with Meredith Moore striking twice, Hannah Fay adding a goal and an assist, and even goalkeeper Jamie Block earned an assist. Stonehill would add to the lead in the forty-ninth minute before Elisa Galbiati broke the shutout in the fiftieth minute, but the Skyhawks would add two more in the half to run off with the win. Stonehill posted a decisive 14-2 shots-on-goaledge and a 3-1 advantage in corners.

NEXT UP: The winner of this matchup will play the winner of the 3-vs-6 contest between the Owls and the Setters on Friday, November 4 at 7:00 p.m. Should the Yellow Jackets prevail, they would host that contest, while the Dolphins would be on the road if they pull off the upset.