NEWARK, N.J. --- The 2021 NJIT women's soccer season came to a bittersweet end on Sunday afternoon as the No. 3 Highlanders and No. 6 New Hampshire Wildcats played to a scoreless draw in their America East Championship quarterfinal matchup but NJIT was edged by UNH penalty kicks, 5-4.
The Highlanders end their campaign with a 7-10-2 (5-3-1 AE) record and close the year on a five-game unbeaten streak. UNH advances to the America East semifinals to face No. 2 seed UMass Lowell on Thursday, November 4.
Despite the setback, the Highlanders - who played the first home America East tournament game in NJIT Athletics history - wrapped up what began as an 0-4 year and ended as a season for the program record books. Sunday's match goes down as NJIT's ninth shutout of the year, matching the 2018 Highlanders for the most in program history. Redshirt junior Molly Saylor, a Second Team All-America East selection, started every minute in goal this season and is now tied with former NJIT great Amelia Sapirman (2018) for the single-season school record for shutouts.
Entering 2021, Saylor had recorded five shutouts in her two playing seasons. With this year's additional nine, Saylor stands alone as the NJIT school record holder in career shutouts with 14. In addition, after her four saves against UNH moved her season tally to 103, Saylor is now only the second Highlander in program history to record multiple 100-save campaigns. As a redshirt freshman in 2019, Saylor stopped 102 shots while helping NJIT reach its last conference tournament in the ASUN. Only former NJIT standout Sadie Mele has matched Saylor's multiple 100 save feat (2007-08).
NJIT will also take its new school record shutout/scoreless streaks into the 2022 campaign. Including Sunday's match, the Highlanders have shut out their opponents over five straight games (3-0-2) and kept them off the scoreboard for over 495 straight minutes.
The five-match unbeaten streak is the program's longest since 2018; after a season-opening loss, the 2018 squad would go 4-0-1 in its next five contests.
Sunday's match overall was a fairly even affair. Each team outshot the other in a half while registering nine shots (UNH 9-4 in 1st, NJIT 9-8 in second). The Highlanders produced more shots on goal (7-4) and drew more fouls (14-11 on UNH) but the Wildcats forced more corner kicks (7-3).
NJIT seemed to have scored the go-ahead goal in the 76th minute on a Tara Walenczyk cross to Christine Conaghy header but the goal was waived off by the referees for a foul on Conaghy. After the game went to and through a pair of overtimes, the Highlanders and Wildcats were even through their first four penalty kicks (3-3) but both teams missed their fifth attempt with a chance to win. Both teams would put forward two more shooters but UNH would advance after hitting both their chances.
2021 FINAL STATS LEADERS
Goals: Christine Conaghy - 4
Assists: Bailey Chant/Siani Magruder/Caroline Caputo - 2
Points: Conaghy - 9
Shots: Lauren Chamberlain - 24
Saves: Molly Saylor - 103
GAA: Saylor - 1.11
Save %: .824
2021 AMERICA EAST AWARDS
Molly Saylor - Second Team All-America East, America East All-Academic Team
Siani Magruder - Second Team All-America East, America East All-Championship Team
Caroline Caputo - America East All-Rookie
