Schoharie’s Carrie Krohn carries Siena women to MAAC final.
Schoharie graduate has goal, assist in win
She goes by the nickname “Pips” because of her short stature, but Carrie Krohn was a giant for the Siena women’s soccer team on Monday afternoon.
Krohn, a 5-foot-1 junior forward from Schoharie, scored her team’s first goal and assisted on the second in a 2-1 victory over Rider in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference semifinal victory at Hickey Field.
The top-seeded Saints (6-0-1) will play host to four-time defending champion Monmouth in the championship match on Friday.
“It’s definitely a rewarding feeling knowing we put in all this hard work,” Krohn said. “We kind of came into this with a chip on our shoulder because we were picked eighth (in the preseason coaches’ poll) and I think that was an unfair representation of who we really are. I think it’s good we get to prove everyone wrong and play in that championship.”
Third-seeded Monmouth beat No. 2 Quinnipiac 2-0 in Monday’s other semifinal.
The Hawks beat Siena 7-1 in the MAAC final when Krohn was a freshman in 2018.
“Honestly, I think we were up for a game either way, whether it was Monmouth or Quinnipiac,” Krohn said. “I think we can compete with Monmouth and I think it’s going to be a different story than our freshman year. That definitely was a punch in the gut, but I think we’re a different team now. We have more heart, more soul and we have a whole bunch of players ready to commit and make it count the whole 90 minutes on the MAAC final.”
Krohn, first called “Pipsqueak” by her father, put the Saints on the board first 13 minutes into the match. She took a nice lead pass by Emily Mcnelis and broke through the left side to beat Rider goalie Ellie Sciancalepore with a low, outside shot for a 1-0 lead.
“It was a perfect through-ball from Emily, who’s actually my roommate, so I like to think we have a little bit more of a connection there,” Krohn said. “It was just a composed finish on my end, and I think it’s just the practice I put in and we put in as a team to really work on that last ball, last goal.”
In the 74th minute, the Saints made it 2-0 on a goal by senior Jayanna Monds. The play started with a nice header from freshman Annie Bagnall to Krohn, who crossed the ball to Monds.
“It was a beautiful header from Annie,” Krohn said. “She called me off of it, so I made my run through. I looked up, saw that I had one person to beat and I saw Jay wide open.”
Rider (4-2-2) drew within 2-1 in the 79th minute. Niamh Cashin scored on a corner kick that went through the hands of Siena goalie Leslie Adams (three saves).
That led to a tense final 10 minutes with Siena back Deanna Lomino making a field-player save in the 84th minute off a Rider corner kick,.
“One-goal game gets that way sometimes because we’re going to protect (the lead) and sit in a little bit, try not to do that too early and they’re throwing everybody forward,” Siena coach Steve Karbowski said. “We held them off and finished it out.”
Now Siena will try to win its third MAAC Tournament championship overall and first since 2015 despite the modest preseason prediction. Karbowski said the team was healthier than last season, when it went 4-11-4.
“That (prediction) probably was a reflection of our last season, which in 2019 was a year and a half ago,” Karbowski said. “A lot has changed. Just a lot of players have stepped up just from one year to the next. … We’re playing a different formation (a 4-4-3), which has fit us pretty good. Just a combination of things.”