The GW women’s soccer team split its weekend Atlantic 10 matches and must win its final two matches and receive help in order to qualify for the A-10 Tournament Nov. 3. The Colonials (5-12, 4-4 A-10) fell to St. Bonaventure Sunday and defeated visiting Duquesne Friday afternoon.

The top four A-10 teams in points qualify for the championships. The Colonials currently have 12 points and are in sixth place.

The women’s team played hungry throughout the weekend. On Friday, GW played a physical game with Duquesne. The Colonials won on junior Erin Coppedge’s two goals. Coppedge scored the Colonials’ lone goal Sunday for her team-leading 12th goal of the season.

Next Friday the Colonials travel for their final two A-10 games of the season at Xavier and Dayton.

St. Bonaventure 3, GW 1Sunday, Oct. 22nd

The GW women’s soccer team nearly held off St. Bonaventure (4-9-3, 2-5-1 A-10) Sunday afternoon, but Jill Twardzik’s three goals on identical plays led the Bonnies to a 3-1 win over the Colonials (5-12-0, 4-4-0 A-10) at South Riding Field.

After GW’s Erin Coppedge scored off Tiffany William’s shot early in the second half, GW’s defense collapsed.

In the 74th minute, Bonnies midfielder Maureen Elliot was dribbling the ball up the field when she served a pass over the GW defense. Breaking for the goal, Twardzik gathered the pass and found herself one-on-one with GW goalkeeper Christine O’Malley. O’Malley dove but missed, and the game was tied.

Twardzik was not done. In the 81st minute she slipped past the GW defense and scored on the same play. Twardzik scored again in the 85th minute on an identical play.

The Colonials took 25 shots and at the end of the game kept shooting. But their comeback was silenced by St. Bonaventure goalkeeper Karen Cunningham, who made nine saves in the win.

GW 2, Duquesne 1Friday, Oct. 20

The GW women’s soccer team beat Duquesne 2-1 at South Riding Field Friday afternoon. The Colonials held off Duquesne (2-13-1, 1-6-1 A-10) in a fierce contest that saw first-year head coach Tanya Vogel pick up the first yellow card of her coaching career for arguing a foul call. GW was whistled for 12 fouls and the Dukes for five fouls.

There were four penalty kicks in the game, three of which went in the goal. The final one came in the 77th minute with the Dukes trailing 2-1. Duquesne’s Abbie Burns blew a chance to tie the game by sending her penalty kick high above GW goalie Christine O’Malley (five saves) and over the crossbar.

GW junior Erin Coppedge scored both Colonial goals on penalty kicks in the second half. In the 70th minute – almost 16 minutes after Duquesne’s Erin Marshall opened the scoring for the visiting Dukes with a penalty kick of her own – Duquesne goalkeeper Michelle Guna tackled Coppedge in the goal-box. Coppedge lined the ball into the lower-left part of the goal past a diving Guna to tie the score at 1-1

Less than five minutes later, the Dukes were called for a handball in their goal-box area and Coppedge went to the lower-right side of the goal to give the Colonials the lead for good at 2-1.