SJU Athletics Photos

PHILADELPHIA (4/1/04) -- The 2003 women's soccer season started and finished in places that had never been seen by the Saint Joseph's Hawks. In August, the team traveled to Norway to compete against several club teams while experiencing the culture and bonding as a team. Three months later, SJU made its first-ever trip to the Atlantic 10 Championships, earning the fifth seed and facing off with Xavier in the quarterfinals. In between, St. Joe's put together one of the finest seasons in the program's eight-year history and witnessed freshman Megan Schutt have the most prolific offensive season since Ellen Stenrud in 1997. After a 4-0 loss at Delaware to open the season, Saint Joseph's got a taste of how talented the freshman class really was. Schutt recorded a hat-trick and classmate Kaiti McCaffery set a new school record with three assists to lead the Hawks past city rival Drexel, 4-1. The four goals were the most SJU had scored in a single game in four years. Following the offensive outburst, the Hawk offense slowed to a halt. The team was shutout 1-0 at Monmouth and needed an overtime goal from junior Erin Ryan to defeat Stony Brook, 1-0. Double-overtime contests against Long Island (1-1 tie) and Lehigh (3-2 loss) sent SJU reeling towards the conference slate with a 2-3-1 record. Schutt scored both goals in a 2-1 Atlantic 10 opening win over Temple but St. Joe's was swept at Xavier (2-1) and Dayton (5-1). Despite the losses, Schutt earned the second of her four Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week honors as she set new program records for goals and points by a freshman. The Hawks won four of their next five contests, with the only slipup coming at the hands of Fordham, despite a hat trick from redshirt freshman Nancy Cook. A 1-0 win over Duquesne and a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over St. Bonaventure moved Saint Joseph's over the .500 mark in conference play this late in the season for the first time since 1997. A southern swing started off well with a 2-0 win at George Washington, but SJU was shutout at Richmond, 3-0 to fall to 5-4-0 in A-10 action. Going into the final weekend of the regular season, the Hawks could assure their first trip to the postseason by defeating Rhode Island and receiving some help from Dayton and Fordham. All went as planned as a late goal from Schutt gave SJU a 2-1 win over the Rams to send St. Joe's to Richmond for the Atlantic 10 Championships. Senior Day was a memorable one for Michelle Ford, as the team MVP recorded her first career hat-trick to help SJU blank Massachusetts 5-0. The game was an important one for the record book as well. The Hawks finished the regular season with the most conference wins in program history and set team records for assists and points in a campaign. Despite outshooting Xavier and controlling possession for most of the game, Saint Joseph's fell to the Musketeers, 2-0, in the A-10 quarterfinals. Schutt headlined a successful evening at the Atlantic 10 banquet, bringing home Rookie of the Year, first team all-conference and All-Rookie honors. Schutt became just the second Hawk to be named to the all-conference first team and the first to earn Rookie of the Year. Junior defender Jen Harris was a second team all-conference selection and Cook was an all-rookie team member. With 27 points (11 goals, five assists), Schutt's season was one of the best in SJU history. All three categories placed her second behind Stenrud's 1997 campaign (12-6-30). Ford finished her career second in assists (11) and fourth in points (31) in program history. The team's 9-8-1 record was the best since the 1999 squad compiled an identical mark. The foundation is now in place for many return trips to the conference tournament for the SJU women's soccer program. It will take a strong season to top the 2003 campaign but with Schutt and several other key players back, 2004 could be another season for the record books on Hawk Hill.