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Women's Soccer 2012 Season Review

 

It was a season of shutouts for the Muhlenberg women’s soccer team. While some went in their favor and others did not, the Mules were not shut out of the Centennial Conference playoffs.

Maggie Neary
The Mules' first back to make the All-CC first time in nine years, Neary scored her first career goal in a 5-1 victory over Penn State Altoona. The co-captain also notched two assists.
Muhlenberg put together an 8-9-2 record with an impressive 6-4-1 mark in CC play. The Mules clinched a CC playoff berth, their first since 2009, with a 1-0 win over Ursinus in their last game of the regular season. The lone goal was scored by freshman Nicole Karsch.

Following the Urinsus game, the Mules fell to Swarthmore 1-0 at home in the first round of the playoffs on a blustery cold night. The score of the last two games was representative of the entire season for Muhlenberg, which played 10 one-nothing games in addition to one scoreless tie.

For the year, the last 16 of the Mules’ 19 games ending with just one or neither team scoring. At one point, they had five consecutive shutouts, which tied the school record set in 1999.

Muhlenberg set a school record by allowing only 14 goals all year, and its team goals-against average of 0.74 was the second-best in team history.

Leading the defense was senior Maggie Neary, a four-year starter at center back and one of two first-team All-CC selections for the Mules. The other was junior CJ Graetzer, who scored the first goal in a 2-0 blanking of nationally ranked Johns Hopkins (No. 6 at the time and an eventual NCAA quarterfinalist). Graetzer also was named to the NSCAA All-Mid-Atlantic Region third team.

Alyssa Meola
Meola tied for the team lead with four goals, finishing her career with nine.
The win against Hopkins was just one of several impressive Mule results. In the third game of the season, a goal by senior Alyssa Meola lifted Muhlenberg to a 1-1 tie with Montclair State, which finished the season 16-2-3 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Meola also scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win at regionally ranked Dickinson, the first win against the Red Devils for the members of the senior class.

Two weeks prior to the playoff meeting, the Mules had beaten regionally ranked Swarthmore 2-0 behind a goal and an assist from Graetzer.

A huge factor in the defensive effort was freshman goalkeeper Francesca Cobuzzi. She recorded six shutouts and led the CC with a 0.38 GAA in conference games. Cobuzzi had a career-high 17 saves, the most by a Muhlenberg goalkeeper since 1998, in the victory over Johns Hopkins.

Junior goalie Amanda Wong, who started five games, finished the season with two shutouts and a GAA of 0.61.

Aiding Wong and Cobuzzi in the back, in addition to Neary, were juniors Stephanie Tramutola and Susan Galgano and sophomore Krissy Fioretti.

Leading the Mule offense was senior Natalie Wizel, who finished the season with 10 points on four goals and two assists. She scored two goals in the victory over Penn State Altoona and had the Mules’ first goal in their regular-season defeat of Swarthmore.

Freshman Taylor Pini scored the insurance goal in the Hopkins game and added a goal and two assists in Muhlenberg’s victory over Bryn Mawr to finish the season with six points.

Also scoring single goals were senior Jillian Moretto, junior Shelby Doll and freshmen Macayla Baer and Jacelin Muschlitz. Sophomore Colleen Touhey and freshman Gabriela De Frutos each added an assist.

Sophomore Leah Messler and freshman Meghan Nehila appeared in every game, making 15 and 12 starts, respectively.