The College of Staten Island women’s soccer team officially punched their way into the postseason, posting a 4-1 victory over City College of New York as part of CUNYAC play at Randall’s Island this morning.  The win lifted the Dolphins to 9-2 overall and 4-1 within the CUNYAC, while CCNY fell to 1-9-1, 1-3-1, respectively.

Statistically, the Dolphins were in front from start to finish.  The visitors outshot the home Beavers, 38-5 (21-2 on goal) and built up a 3-0 lead in the first half.  The scoring started early, with Samantha Wysokowski netting her fourth game-winner of the season with a goal at 10:15 to give CSI a 1-0 lead off of a feed from Kathryn Dowling.

The score stayed that way for quite a while before CSI scored two late first-half goals to go into intermission with a very comfortable lead.  First, with 12:33 to go in the period, Danielle Alexandrini was on the spot to punch in a rebound off of a Danielle Smith shot.  For Alexandrini it was her 10th marker of the season.  Then, just over five minutes later, Alexandrini broke in free against CCNY goalkeeper Marissa Olsen and put another in to make it 3-0.

CCNY generated some life coming out of the break, and just 3:24 into the second frame, Olsen, who came in to play the field, took a Juliet Shubaev pass and belted in a shot from the top of the box to beat CSI keeper Kristy Colangelo, cutting the CSI lead to 3-1.

CSI would pepper the CCNY end with shots but could not add to its lead until the 81st minute.  There, after a Beavers foul, Lauren Smith laced in a free kick goal with just 8:03 to play to give CSI the 4-1 final.  The Dolphins gave up only two shots in the stanza, playing strong defensively.

Colangelo made one save in the win while CCNY keepers Olsen and Emily Ramos made a combined 17 saves in net for the Beavers.

The win assured CSI no lower than a third place finish in the CUNYAC standings with one conference game remaining.  The top four of the seven competing teams advance to the conference tournament in early-November.

?CSI’s next game will be Wednesday, October 14, when they travel to face St. Joseph’s College (LI) at 7pm.  It is a make-up from a previously postponed game on September 30.