Three standouts from women’s soccer’s draw with Cornell

Women’s soccer (3-1-2) struggled in their first home game in three weeks, unable to break Cornell’s (2-0-2) unbeaten streak. 

The Bulls found themselves down a goal in the 40th minute and had to play catch up until the 58th minute, when sophomore midfielder Katie Krohn scored the tying goal to continue the Bulls’ own unbeaten streak. 

Katie Krohn’s breakout year continues 

Head coach Shawn Burke predicted that the sophomore midfielder/forward would have a breakout year. 

Krohn’s lived up to that prediction so far this season. She scored her fourth goal of the season and has had six shots on goal in her six games played. Last year, she had a total of seven shots on goal in 10 games. Krohn is already becoming a key player in the Bulls lineup this season, with 421 minutes of playtime so far this season. That’s just shy of the 430 minutes in the entire 2022 season. 

“Looking at her goal it was effort,” Burke said in a video posted to the team’s social media pages. “She put the run in there. She’s always going to give you that. You are never going to question Katie’s effort.” 

Lexie Thompson consistently comes up big 

The freshman goalkeeper made five big saves, despite Cornell’s threatening offense. (The Big Red made six shots on goal, compared to UB’s five.) And this isn’t the first time Thompson’s pulled that off — she wracked up five saves in the team’s Sept. 3 game against Niagara (1-6-0). 

This was Thompson’s fifth start of the season, and she’s now made a total of 14 saves with only lost one game. 

Olivia Bizzoni creating opportunities 

Senior midfielder Olivia Bizzoni was named player of the match after her efforts to help set up her teammates. 

Bizzoni set up freshman midfielder Mika Marolly for a shot early on that ultimately was saved by Cornell’s goalkeeper. She also gave Krohn a big opportunity later in the game, allowing Krohn to shoot into the side netting. 

Bizzoni has two assists on the season: one in the game-winning goal against Ohio State and one in the game-winning goal against Colgate. Bizzoni has appeared in all games played in her previous three seasons but has spent a lot of them coming off the bench. Her role this season has changed, as she has started five of the six games played. 

Coach Burke’s thoughts 

The draw wasn’t a result the Bulls were happy with. Playing catch up and being beaten on shots on goal isn’t something UB was used to. 

“We didn't take care of the details and didn’t reward some good plays, so we had to battle back just to get out with a draw,” Burke said in a statement. “We are far off the standard right now.” 

The Bulls’ last game before conference matches is up next

The Bulls are set to face UConn on Saturday at 7 p.m. UB has won their only match up between the teams in 2021 with a 2-0 win. The match will be held at Morrone Stadium and can be streamed on UConn+. 

CORRECTION: The subhead of this article originally stated that women's soccer came back in the 89th minute. We regret this error. 

Amy Maslin is the senior sports editor and can be reached at amy.maslin@ubspectrum.com