SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Fairleigh Dickinson women's soccer junior Jackson Bennett scored a second-half goal to help her team earn an important 1-0 Northeast Conference victory over Bryant on the road.
 
With the win, the Knights (4-7-3, 2-1-1 NEC) move into a tie with the Bulldogs (6-5-3, 2-1-1 NEC) for third place in the NEC standings with four games remaining. The win also keeps FDU within reach of the top two teams in the standings, who each earned victories over the weekend as well.
 
"Pretty happy with our team, it definitely was a team victory today," said head coach Eric Teepe after the match.  "It was a competitive game that went back and forth for a while. Bryant came out and took it to us in first 35 minutes, and then we started attacking more in the second half. After we scored, we played smart and held on, did a good job of not giving up chances. Overall, a good day for us to come away with a win at Bryant, so we'll take it."
 
The Knights earned the first scoring chance of the game in the early minutes but had to defend for most of the first 20 minutes of action. The backline of senior Julia Shea, junior Samantha Roff and freshmen Christa Waterman and Noam Kedem solidified a tough Knight defense, blocking two Bryant shot attempts and forcing a mishit on another attempt to keep the ball away from the net.
 
Sophomore Viktorija Miseljic and senior Elma Kolenovic worked to gain another good scoring chance for the Knights in the 27th minute. Kolenovic moved the ball deep into Bulldog territory and let loose a shot that ricocheted off a defender. Miseljic then lofted a ball with her right foot across the net, but it missed just wide of the left post.
 
Waterman took FDU's best chance of the opening half in the 36th minute. Off a corner kick, Waterman collected the ball and lined a hard shot that hit the crossbar and toppled over the goal, inches from putting the Knights ahead.
 
Junior goalkeeper Amanda Fitzgerald saved Bryant's only shot on goal of the half in the 43rd minute, and both teams entered halftime without a goal.
 
The Bulldogs peppered two quick shots into FDU's defenders to start the second half, and FDU responded with a couple of tries of its own. Roff hit a shot on goal that the Bryant keeper saved, and Bennett fired an attempt that missed wide in the 52nd minute.
 
The Knights then broke through a few minutes later, with Kolenovic feeding Bennett for a shot that deflected off a Bryant defender and into the net for the 1-0 lead in the 58th minute. The goal was Bennett's first of the season, and it was also Kolenovic's team-leading fourth assist of the year.
 
The FDU defense carried the team after Bennett's goal, curbing the Bulldogs in their scoring chances the rest of the way. Fitzgerald saved a header shot in the 61st minute in what proved to be Bryant's best chance at equalizing, and another header off a corner kick missed wide a few minutes later.
 
FDU then limited Bryant to only a long-distance try in the final 18 minutes to hold on for the victory.
 
"We're getting better," Teepe said. "We still have to find a way to be more dangerous, but we're getting there. We put ourselves in a good position for the next two games that we need to win. The conference has shown this season that these games go down to the wire, and we have to find a way to get in front early on."
 
Fitzgerald totaled four saves in the contest in earning her third shutout of the season and the 10th of her career, becoming the fourth Knight to reach 10 goalie shutouts in a career.
 
Bennett's goal represented the third of her career, her first since scoring twice during her freshman campaign. Kolenovic notched her 14th career assist and 52nd career point, tying her for fourth on the Knight's all-time list.
 
The Knights return to Teaneck for their next contest, facing LIU Brooklyn at University Stadium Friday, October 12, at 4 p.m. The Knights finish the season with three of their four remaining contests played at University Stadium, with the exception being next Sunday's match at Wagner.