St. Joseph’s riding its experience to a record-setting season — and a showdown with Virginia

It all started when Julia Duffhuis found the back of the cage six minutes into St. Joseph’s game against Lock Haven on Oct. 4.

The fifth-year back’s goal on a penalty corner got things rolling for St. Joe’s (10-2), which went on to rout the Bald Eagles, 13-1, and smash a few records along the way.

The Hawks’ 13 goals are an Atlantic 10 single-game record, surpassing the 12-goal mark set by Richmond in 2009 and matched in 2016 by the University of Massachusetts.

After being ranked sixth — the highest in program history — it was UMass that beat St. Joe’s, 2-1, in overtime on Sept. 27. But they’ve bounced back, and head coach Hannah Prince said the team was “eager to play again.”

“We had a really good week of practice after that loss, just refocusing them and just getting them on the same page and seeing areas we could improve,” Prince said. “I think it shows that they are resilient and hungry for always achieving.”

St. Joe’s next game will be at No. 3 Virginia Sunday at noon. Its’s the teams' first meeting since the Cavaliers knocked the Hawks out of the NCAA Tournament in the first round last season, but fifth-year forward Lily Santi hopes her team can build on the success of their Lock Haven win and 1-0 victory over Delaware that followed. St. Joe’s also beat VCU, 4-2, on Friday.

“We really connected that game [against Lock Haven],” Santi said. “I thought we can use that game in particular to focus on harder games, because we know how well we can play together.”

With their 13 goals and 14 assists, the Hawks' 40-point game marked the most in Division I in 16 years, and the second-most in Division I history. It also was the most goals scored in a DI game this season.

The scoring was spread out across eight players, but Santi paced the Hawks with a hat trick. Fellow fifth-year forward Manu Ghigliotti, fifth-year midfielder Celeste Smits, and senior midfielder Sol Borensztein each had two goals.

“It showed their ability to lock in and play together. I think it was a really big team effort, and they’ve really implemented the things we asked them to on attack and stayed stingy on defense,” Prince said. “It speaks to their discipline and their intensity that they can play with.”

Along with her hat trick, Santi also put up two assists to match the program record for points in a game with eight. The record, held by four other players, including Ghigliotti, came solely from goals.

“Obviously, I’m forward, I love to score goals, but at the same time, I think we just really connected as a team together, and it just flowed,” Santi said. “So, I guess I was just in the right place at the right time, as well as making sure I was trying to help my teammates look better.”

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Santi has been among the Hawks' leading goal scorers since 2022. She wasn’t happy with the start to her career, but things changed once she started got more playing time and gained confidence her junior season. Santi credits her teammates for helping spearhead that shift in her consistency in the last three seasons.

For Prince, it’s the behind-the-scenes work Santi puts in that is most impressive.

“She’s an extremely passionate player, and she works really hard on both sides of the ball,” Prince said. “She isn’t afraid to put in the extra work and lead her teammates to develop and be better and connect with her. And she’s just fearless on the ball and just goes after it.”

On Santi’s end, leading by example means making goals “the norm,” so her teammates are motivated to score more, too. Santi saw the results of that against Lock Haven.

“I’ve always said that I don’t use my voice as much as maybe some other people do, but I try to lead with my play,” Santi said. “Making sure that I’m doing the hard work back tackling and getting in there to score goals.”

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Santi hopes to play a part in “the small but mighty Hawks” succeeding with the many players who have returned this season. She sees their combined knowledge of the A-10 as an asset.

“It helps to show them how hard other teams come at us, so we just have to work that much harder to come out stronger than them,” Santi said. “Just knowing how other teams play and that we do have the target on our back, not to underestimate any teams going in to the A-10 play.”