PITTSBURGH, Pa. – A new era of Geneva College women's soccer began on Wednesday night as first-year Head Coach Kelsey Morrison and the Golden Tornadoes headed to La Roche to open the season.  Unfortunately, the Redhawks controlled the match for most of the game and came away with a 3-1 victory.

It has been a challenging opening month for the women's team, with over half the team missing parts of the preseason practices due to COVID protocols, and the Golden Tornadoes were still without four players who were still absent because of those protocols.  In addition, Geneva started six freshmen in the season-opening match, which made for a challenging situation for the Golden Tornadoes to navigate.

La Roche had the better of the possession in the first half, and the Redhawks broke through in the 22^nd minute when Alexandra Mecchia tapped in a cross to give La Roche the early lead, which is where the score stayed heading into halftime, with the Redhawks holding a 9-1 advantage in shots.

La Roche doubled the lead in the 64^th minute off the foot of Hannah Miller.  Senior Lexi Meese (Sarver, Pa./Freeport Area) got Geneva on the board in the 72^nd minute when she took a feed from sophomore Katie Bodenmiller (Westfield, N.Y./Westfield Academy and Central) and scored from 30 yards out, beating the La Roche keeper who had come off her line too far.  However, La Roche put the game away in the 78^th minute when Mecchia scored again, finishing off the 3-1 victory.

La Roche outshot Geneva in the game 23-7, including 11-4 in shots on goal.  Freshman Jade Farnsworth (New Brighton, Pa./Riverside) made eight saves to keep the Golden Tornadoes in the game for most of the night.

"We had moments of pressure and desire in attack, but we weren't able to combine enough to see the result we wanted tonight," said Morrison.  "We're looking forward to improving on this beginning as we continue to build our team chemistry throughout the upcoming games."

The Golden Tornadoes and Coach Morrison will try to get their first win of the season at Hiram on Saturday, beginning at 1:00 p.m.  Geneva has its home opener next Wednesday, September 8, when the Golden Tornadoes host Mount Aloysius at 5:00 p.m.


Geneva College is a Christ-centered academic community that provides a comprehensive education to equip students for faithful and fruitful service to God and neighbor. Offering over 145 traditional undergraduate majors and programs, fully online Adult Degree Programs and high-demand graduate degrees, Geneva's programs are recognized for their high quality. Geneva has one of the top 100 undergraduate engineering programs in the nation, according to U.S. News and World Report. Adhering to the truth of Scripture, a Geneva education is grounded in God's Word as well as in a core curriculum designed to prepare students vocationally to think, write and communicate well in today's world. Geneva was founded and is governed by the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA) and is a founding member of both the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) and IACE (International Association for Christian Education).