Toledo Blanks Buffalo to Earn MAC Win, 3-0

by Brian DeBenedictis

October 1, 2012

BUFFALO, NY - Toledo returned to its winning ways with an impressive 3-0 victory over Buffalo on Friday under the lights at UB Stadium. With the road shutout, the Rockets’ snap their five-match winless skid and improve to 3-7-1 overall, 1-1-1 in the Mid-American Conference.

The two-time reigning league regular-season champions took advantage of a pair of second-half goals to break away a tightly-contested match and earn its eight consecutive triumph over the Bulls (2-8-1, 0-3-0 MAC).

"I’m happy that we were able to come on the road and grab three important points and move on from last week’s setback," Toledo Head Coach Brad Evans said. "Equally as important was the fact that we had more confidence and conviction in the attacking third where I thought Kika (Hernandez) and Rachael (Kravitz) did a nice job creating opportunities for us. Our goal moving forward is to build off the steps we took tonight and see what strides we can make heading into our match."

UT opened the scoring with sophomore Kirsten Catloth’s first career goal at 14:47. The eventual match-winning tally was setup on a well placed 25-yard free kick off the foot of senior Rachael Kravitz. The ball was played through a Buffalo defensive wall to Catloth, who promptly snuck a low shot inside the left post to give Toledo a lead it would not surrender.

UB almost drew even in the 32nd minute thanks to a shot by N’Dea Johnson, but it was pushed away from the frame by Toledo sophomore netminder Kelsey Borowitz. Johnson would have another chance in the 42nd minute, but it was also snuffed out, preserving UT’s 1-0 lead at the intermission.

The score remained the same until the 64th minute when freshman Geri Siudzinski found the back of the net for the first time in her collegiate career. Junior Rachel MacLeod started the play with a cross to Siudzinski from the right side toward the back post. The Perrsyburg, OH native properly accepted the cross and placed a shot into the lower left portion of the goal to make the difference 2-0.

Toledo then finished off the scoring with senior Natalia Gaitan’s initial tally this season at the 72:41 mark. The 2012 team tri-captain bent a free kick around the UB defensive wall from approximately 20-yards out on the left side to set the final difference at 3-0.

The Midnight Blue & Gold finished with a 13-8 edge in shots and a 5-2 cushion in corner kicks. Kravitz paced the two-time reigning MAC regular-season champions with three shots, while sophomore Alexis Tice and Catloth had two shots each.

Between the posts, Borowitz went the distance and stopped three shots to register her first victory and second blanking this season.

Shannon Algoe, Taylor Thompson and Johnson finished with two shots each for the host Bulls, who were shutout for the fifth time in 2012.

"I’m really proud of us for making progress tonight," senior Jaimie Morsillo said. "We will continue to focus on our mentality for the entire 90 minutes and face the adversities as a team. We showed a lot of improvement up front, and I’m confident we can keep this momentum going. It’s exciting whenever we see that we’re connecting on all areas of the field, and tonight helped us to rekindle that fire towards winning another MAC title."

The Rockets will look to continue their momentum against Akron on Sunday, Sept. 30. The opening whistle against the Zips is slated for 1:00 p.m. at FirstEnergy Stadium-Cub Cadet Field.

TOLEDO 3, Buffalo 0

UT: Kirsten Catloth (Rachael Kravitz), 14:47
UT: Geri Siudzinski (Rachel MacLeod), 63:08
UT: Natalia Gaitan (Unassisted), 72:41

SHOTS: UT 13, UB 8
CORNER KICKS: UT 5, UB 2
SAVES: UT 3, UB 6
FOULS: UT 11, UB 12