Point Park women’s soccer hosted the Florida Southern College Moccasins at home for the first official game of the season on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. The game ended 2-2 and marked both teams with a record of 0-0-1.
“I’m extremely proud because it’s not about me, it’s about our team and the way we respond to any kind of adversity and the work we put in,” Coach Baker said.
That sense of pride was mirrored by the atmosphere the high energy crowd created for the women of both teams to feed off of.
“[The crowd] helped us all lock in. We wanted a shot for them and ourselves as well,” Pioneer Maya Figueroa said. “It was great to see everyone show out for us.”
Figueroa scored the first of two goals for the Pioneers this game. The goal came at the 35-minute mark after a corner kick by Pioneer Martina Cardemil. Figueroa had an additional assist from Pioneer Rebecca Pihlgren that led to a straight kick into the goal, putting the score at 1-1.
The second and final goal for Point Park occurred in the second half. This came in the form of a penalty kick goal by Pioneer Sterre Kuijper after two fouls from the Moccasins. The last goal of the game came from Florida Southern’s Breena Harrigan with an assist from Isabella Payne, which ended the game at a draw, 2-2.
“Ultimately, when you work hard, results happen, and this is a big-time result for this program. I’m very proud of everyone.”
The Pioneers ended the game with nine fouls: five in the first and four in the second. The Moccasins ended the game with only one less foul at eight total: one in the first and seven in the second.
“[The mutual attitude] was spicy. The other team was really on us. At the end of the game, there were a lot of fouls. But as I said, our team, we are ready for this,” Pioneer Paula Sole said.
Pioneer goalie Nicole Kuchinski ended the game with a total of six saves, only giving up two shots out of the Moccasins’ eight shots on goal throughout the game. The Pioneers had a total of five shots with two of them being shots on goal.
“We were able to take our opportunities. We had two opportunities, two goals. We could’ve had more, but I feel like whenever we were in front of the goal, we were able to put them in,” Sole said. “[Florida Southern College] had a lot of chances, but we were just really tough on defense. So, that’s just something that we do really well as a team.”
The Moccasins had a total of 23 shots, which pushed the Pioneers to the limits of their defensive play.
“I feel like it was a really tough game. They put in the work, this team came to play, and they were really hard on us,” Sole said. “Unfortunately, the result wasn’t there, but I think the effort of this game is going to lead us to a better situation for the next game.”
Point Park’s next matchup will be against Edinboro on Wednesday, Sept. 10, at home at 7 p.m. This is followed by the Pioneers’ first Mountain East Conference matchup against Wheeling University on Saturday, Sept. 13, at home at noon.
“We’re going to keep being prepared for every single game,” Baker said. “Not only that, but we’re also going to be defensively organized even more than we were tonight, and I thought we were still phenomenal at that.”
