The Butler women’s soccer team is scheduled to play in its first Atlantic 10 Conference tournament tomorrow.

The Bulldogs ended the regular season with an overall record of 11-4-4 and went 5-1-3 in conference play to finish in fourth place.

Butler will be entering the tournament as the No. 4 seed, having won three of its last four matches.

The top eight teams in the A-10 standings qualified for the tournament out of the league’s 16 teams.

No. 5 seed St. Bonaventure is an unfamiliar opponent to the Bulldogs. Tomorrow’s quarterfinal match will be the teams’ first meeting this season. The Bonnies went 8-10-1 overall and 5-4-0 in conference play.

“We haven’t played [the Bonnies], yet it is kind of an advantage because we don’t come in with any preconceived notions,” junior midfielder Mary Allen said. “But it’s kind of a disadvantage too because you don’t know what to expect at all, but I think it’s a good thing we haven’t played them yet.”

If Butler beats St. Bonaventure, the Bulldogs would play the winner of the match between first-seeded La Salle and eighth-seeded Charlotte. The Bulldogs beat Charlotte 1-0 in the regular season finale Sunday. They have not faced La Salle this season.

If Butler does face a familiar opponent later in the tournament, both teams would already know what to prepare for.

“There’s so much to playing a team twice, so even if we play the eight teams we’ve already played, those teams are going to come at us and know how we play (and) go against our weaknesses,” junior midfielder Olivia Colosimo said.

With the potential of playing up to three games in four days, the grind of tournament play can be hard on players.

“Your body doesn’t get a full recovery in between games, but you go into it knowing that,” Colosimo said. “I think you mentally prepare yourself and physically prepare yourself in the days ahead so that you’re ready to play two or three games back to back.”

Players must also prepare themselves for the added pressure of playing in a single-elimination tournament.

“There’s a lot more pressure,” Allen said. “You have to be focused all the time. You can’t let up even for a second because the other team could capitalize on it. One goal could end your season.”

Butler’s quarterfinal match against St. Bonaventure is at 1:30 p.m. in Kingston, R.I. Semifinal matches are on Friday, and the final is on Sunday.

One could argue that no single player has had as much of an impact on his or her team this fall at Butler than freshman midfielder Sophie Maccagnone has had on the women’s soccer team.

Maccagnone currently leads the team with seven goals and has started in all 11 matches for the Bulldogs so far this season.

She was named Atlantic 10 Women’s Soccer Rookie of the Week two consecutive times in September.

Maccagnone’s confidence is what coach Tari St. John said sets her apart from other freshmen.

“You often have talented freshmen, but sometimes they don’t have the confidence to step up and take such an impactful role as a freshman,” St. John said. “But Sophie has the right attitude—the confidence, combined with her ability—that I think she was ready to make an impact right from the get-go.”

Maccagnone said the confidence that her teammates exuded when she began practicing with the team was apparent to her.

“They were really welcoming, and everyone was confident, and their confidence kind of came off to me,” Maccagnone said. “Like seeing when they wanted me to take penalty kicks, they obviously had confidence in me.”

Senior defender Claire Milam said Maccagnone has been a reliable teammate and has handled criticism well from her teammates and coaches.

“A lot of times in women’s sports, it’s hard for teammates to criticize each other, but I think that she both takes criticism well and gives it out gracefully,” Milam said. “She’s a good teammate in that she holds people responsible, but she also holds herself responsible.”

Maccagnone also has had to deal with the normal issues involving the transition to college life outside of soccer, but she said she is making the adjustment well.

“It’s a little exhausting at first, but obviously with study tables, that helps a lot because you get all your work done,” Maccagnone said.  “You’ve just really got to have time management, and that’s what my coaches and teammates have really been emphasizing.”

St. John said that Maccagnone stays levelheaded in spite of all the attention that comes with her goal-scoring prowess.

“The really unique part with someone that is as talented as Sophie is she is one of the most humble people I know,” St. John said. “She really feels that scoring goals is just part of her role, just as for someone else, winning balls in the air or defending is their role.

“This is how she can serve her team, and I think that’s what you have with a kid like Sophie. She just wants to serve her team well.”

In a game for Butler’s history books, the women’s soccer team came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Valparaiso and move on in the Horizon League tournament.

The game, played Tuesday in Valparaiso, featured 20 minutes of extra play and eight rounds of penalty kicks.

In the first 40 minutes, offense was the theme of the game, with all four goals coming in the first half.

Junior Rachel Scott scored on a rebound off a shot by fellow junior Katie Griswold, and sophomore Olivia Colosimo scored on a free kick.

After a defensive second half that featured several saves from Bulldog goalkeeper Julie Burton, the game went to overtime.

After no offensive action in two overtimes, the game went to a shootout, which Butler won by a count of 5-4.

Valparaiso had two opportunities to win in PKs, but both were shut down.

The match featured 37 shots and 37 fouls between the two teams.

Burton had seven saves in the marathon of a match.

Bundled-up fans came out to the Butler Bowl on Oct. 28 for the team’s last conference match against Loyola.

They watched the Bulldogs (8-9-1, 3-5) work to come back from a 2-0 first- half deficit.

In the 10th minute, Rambler freshman defenseman Valerie Gonyo headed a Loyola free kick into the net to put them up 1-0.

“You fall behind early, the game changes, and you have to chase it a little bit,” Butler coach Tari St. John said.

Loyola tallied another goal just less than 28 minutes later when junior forward Ana Michelini broke away on a run and chipped the ball over Burton.

“We put the effort in, we were connected, and I think we played really well with each other,” freshman foward Elise Kotsakis said. “We just couldn’t get it in the back of the net.”

Kotsakis, who had a career-high nine shots during the match, changed that in the 74th minute, scoring the only goal of the second half.

The goal-scoring play started with a pass from  Griswold to Kotsakis, who buried the ball in the net from 12 yards out.

Butler’s offense could not find the net again, and the Bulldogs finished the regular season with a sub-.500 record.

By the end of the match, Butler had outshot Loyola 18-8 and had eight shots on goal to the Ramblers’ six.

“We always like to win just for pride,” Burton said. “I think it’s good that we can come back from two goals and make those changes.”

The Bulldogs next play on Nov. 4 against Horizon League regular-season champion Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the semifinal round of the conference tournament.

The Panthers (16-2-0, 8-0-0) defeated the Bulldogs 4-1 in a match earlier this season.

After enduring one injury after another, it seemed that Butler women’s soccer player Natalie Galovska would never catch a break.

“When my doctor said I should probably call it quits, I remember thinking, ‘No, not again,’” Galovska, now a senior, said.

After battling injuries through her teens, Galovska’s aspirations were realized when she was offered a scholarship to play Division I soccer at Butler.
But then the aches and pains returned.

During her junior season, Galovska, then a midfielder, suffered a pulled quadricep and was approached by coach Tari St. John about the possibility of taking a medical redshirt.

Photo by Maria Porter

Hopeful to return, Galovska declined.

However, her knee buckled during a pregame warmup, ending her season and jeopardizing her soccer career.

When she approached St. John about switching from midfield to goal, Galovska’s idea was well received.

“I just wasn’t ready to end it,” Galovska said. “I thought maybe there was one last chance. Maybe I could help out somehow if I were in goal.”

Galovska played goalie as a kid, and the Bulldogs were in need of depth at the goalkeeper position.

After working with goalkeeper coach Elise Edwards during the spring and honing her skills in the summer, Galovska emerged as the Bulldogs’ top option.

“There are special traits that make a good goalkeeper—risk taking and courageousness,” St. John said, “and Natalie has those. She’ll take a foot to the face if that means she’s going to save a goal for us.”

Galovska began the season as the Bulldogs’ No. 1 goalkeeper, starting nine games and amassing a 4-5 record.

Her first career victory was also her first shutout, a 1-0 win over Indiana State.

As Butler’s lone senior, Galovska’s career will be celebrated Friday in the Bulldogs’ final home match of the regular season.

“She is always there to offer advice or guidance when someone is struggling,” junior midfielder Kelly Grott said. “When senior night comes around, it’s going to set in that she won’t be around next year.”

While sophomore Julie Burton will move into the goalkeeper role for the Bulldogs after Galovska graduates, St. John said Galovska’s presence will be missed.

“She’s had a profound impact on this program with the inspiration she’s provided,” St. John said.

Butler women’s soccer coach Tari St. John doesn’t shy away from challenges.

As a collegiate player, St. John helped establish what is now a nationally-renowned program at Purdue. As a head coach, she has put Butler on the map as a force to be reckoned with in the Horizon League.

After leading Pius XI High School to back-to-back state titles in soccer, St. John was a founding member of the Purdue women’s soccer team in the fall of 1998.

While playing under coach Rob Klatte at Purdue, St. John helped transform the Boilermakers from a Big Ten bottom-dweller to an NCAA tournament contender.

“Rob Klatte is probably the most impactful and influential coach that I’ve played under,” St. John said. “A lot of my philosophies have definitely derived from being under his tutelage. He was a great mentor and still is.”

Klatte spoke highly of St. John’s ability to recover from an ACL injury as a junior to become a co-captain as a senior and help lead Purdue on an NCAA tournament run.

“[St. John] was one of very few players that you could rest assured she was going to show up, battle and play with intensity every game,” Klatte said. “It says a massive amount about the wherewithal, determination and dedication that she possessed and still does possess.”

St. John used those qualities when she began her coaching career at Butler in 2004.

Photo courtesy of Butler Sports Information

After serving as an assistant coach for the Bulldogs throughout the team’s 2004 and 2005 campaigns, St. John returned to West Lafayette to assist Klatte at Purdue.

Her tenure there didn’t last long and just a few months later, St. John received the head coaching position at Butler.

She immediately began to change the face of the women’s soccer program.

“The big reason I came to Butler had a lot to do with Tari,” senior goalkeeper Natalie Galovska said. “I saw that she had that determination and conviction to change the program, and I wanted to be a part of it.”

St. John wasted no time establishing the Bulldogs as contenders in the Horizon League.

The first Butler team she coached finished with a record of 5-11-3, including 2-5-2 in conference play.

Last year St. John led Butler to a 6-2 conference record and a No. 1 seed in the Horizon League Tournament.

At the end of the season, she was named the 2010 Horizon League Coach of the Year.

“Looking at what she has done during my four years is night and day,” Galovska said. “What’s crazy to me is how much better it’s going to get.”

Photo by Maria Porter

Not even chilly conditions could prevent the Butler women’s soccer team from taking down Youngstown State Saturday afternoon.

The Bulldogs (7-5-1, 2-1-0) triumphed 2-1 over the Penguins (3-6-2, 0-1-1) for their second straight conference win.

“If you score early, that may change the way they are going to play,” Butler head coach Tari St. John said.

Butler flexed its offensive muscles early, scoring five minutes into the game on a 25-yard strike from junior forward Katie Griswold.

The goal was Griswold’s team-leading fifth this season.

After being staked to an early lead, Butler kept up the pressure, both on offense and defense.

The Bulldogs outshot the Penguins 13-1 in the opening half, which ultimately led to another Butler goal.

The strike came from freshman defenseman Kelly Mahoney, who buried the ball in the back of the net off of a corner kick in the 38th minute to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 advantage.

The second goal proved to be valuable insurance for Butler. Youngstown State freshman forward Jade Flory provided a goal for the Penguins in the 63rd minute to pull within one.

The Bulldogs outshot the Penguins 18-5 on the afternoon. Freshman forward Elise Kotsakis led the way with five shots.

“The game had a lot of variables like the bad weather and a different field than what we are used to,” Kotsakis said.  “The one thing we did was make sure we played a 90 minute game and kept our lead.”

Sophomore goalkeeper Julie Burton got her fourth start of the season in net for the Bulldogs and notched her third win of the season.

Butler also was in action on Thursday when it hosted its second night match in less than a week. This one was against non-conference rival Xavier.

The game went into double overtime and eventually ended in a 2-2 tie, giving the Bulldogs their first draw of the season.

Butler started the game strong, breaking out to a 2-0 lead before halftime.

The Musketeers (6-4-1) were able to pull closer in the second half when senior forward Jessica Brooks scored in the 69th minute.

Xavier then came up with the equalizer late in the contest when junior defenseman Brooke Eberly scored in the 86th minute.

The game would remain deadlocked until the final whistle at the end of the second overtime period.

While the game will go down as a tie, the statistics will show that the Bulldogs were the aggressors, holding a 23-13 advantage in shots.

The Bulldogs will take the pitch again today when they host Cleveland State (7-4-1, 0-2-1)  at 3:30 p.m. for another Horizon League showdown.