11/5/2005 - (Staten Island, NY) – Leave it to a corner kick for the Mount Saint Vincent Women’s Soccer team to clinch its first-ever Conference Championship. During the 2005 season, Mount Saint Vincent enjoyed one of the biggest corner kick advantages in college soccer, attempting 122 corners compared to only 40 by opponents. However, despite the disparate number of corner kicks in Mount Saint Vincent’s favor this season, there really was not much of an advantage for the Dolphins at all, as heading into today’s Hudson Valley Women’s Athletic Conference (HVWAC) Championship Game the Mount had converted only one of those 122 opportunities into a goal.

Mount Saint VIncent sophomore goalie Alexis Alessi made five saves to earn her third consecutive shutout and fifth overall as the Mount Saint Vincent Women's Soccer team won the HVWAC Championship with a 1-0 win over the College of Staten Island on Saturday. Mount Saint Vincent is now 10-7 and awaits a possible ECAC Tournament bid.

However, when it counted the most, with a championship at stake, the Mount came through on one of the biggest corner kicks in the history of the program. Freshman Tracy Frank (Port Jefferson Station, NY/Comsewogue HS) capped an incredible post-season with the game-winning goal in the 15th minute, on a corner kick off the foot of Melissa Garganta (Kearney, NJ/Kearney HS), as the Mount captured its first-ever Conference Championship of any kind with a 1-0 win over the College of Staten Island in a game played at Staten Island. With the win, Mount Saint Vincent not only avenged a 2-1 loss to Staten Island on Oct. 23 that cost the Mount the HVWAC Regular Season Championship, but it also continued an incredible turn-around from a year ago by improving the team to 10-7 after finishing the 2004 season with a 3-10 record. The Mount will now await a possible bid to the ECAC post-season tournament.

The game was as even as a soccer match could be with Staten Island taking 14 shots and Mount Saint Vincent taking 12. Both goalies made five saves as Mount Saint Vincent goalie Alexis Alessi (Rockville Centre, NY/Oceanside HS) earned her fifth shutout of the season with the win. Three of Alessi’s shutouts came during the team’s final three games as the sophomore did not allow a goal during the Mount’s last 344:30 of play this season, and allowed only five goals during the Mount’s final six games.

Speaking of tremendous play down the stretch, Frank’s heroics during the post-season were nothing short of sensational. After netting two goals and an assist during the regular season, the freshman had seven points during two playoff games, and was Mount Saint Vincent’s leading scorer during that stretch. For her efforts, Frank was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player after the game. In fact, every point amassed by the Dolphins during the 2005 post-season was by either a freshman or a sophomore.

Mount Saint Vincent last reached the HVWAC Championship Game during the 2002 season.

The 2005 Mount Saint Vincent Women's Soccer team became the first in the history of the program to capture a Conference Championship after defeating the College of Staten Island, 1-0, in the HVWAC Championship Game on Saturday.