COLCHESTER, Vt. - First-year Christina Cummings (Queensbury, N.Y./Queensbury) netted the game's only goal early in overtime on Saturday to hand the Saint Michael's College women's soccer team a 1-0 win over American International College in a match-up between regionally-ranked Northeast-10 Conference squads on Duffy Field. The Purple Knights were ninth in this week's United Soccer Coaches East Region poll, while AIC was eighth.

RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (4-2, 2-1 NE10), AIC (2-2-1, 0-2 NE10)

SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• First-year Christina Cummings (Queensbury, N.Y./Queensbury), 1 goal
• First-year Jenna Braun (Stockholm, N.J./Green Mountain Valley School), 3 saves
• First-year Elani Gikas (Peabody, Mass./Bishop Fenwick), 1 assist

OPPONENT LEADERS

• Junior Tamra Zippin, 1 save

GAME FACTS

• Cummings netted her first college goal.
• Braun made her college debut.
• AIC held slim edges in shots (13-11) and corner kicks (6-4).
• All four of the Purple Knights' wins have come by 1-0 finals this season, including two in overtime. Through just six games, they have already set a program record with the four 1-0 wins.
• Each of the Purple Knights' last eight games since 2019 has been decided by a goal or less.
• Saint Michael's has played four consecutive 1-0 games - three wins, one loss - for the first time since 2010, when it played five in a row between Oct. 2 and Oct. 13.
• Each of the Purple and Gold's last four wins against AIC have been by 1-0 finals, with all four coming at home, including the last two now in overtime.
• Today's game was third in a row for the Purple Knights against teams at least ranked in the United Soccer Coaches East Region poll. That run included nationally-ranked Southern New Hampshire University on Wednesday.
• AIC had allowed only one goal all year entering the game, against Assumption University, which was seventh in this week's East Region rankings.

THE ACTION

• The first good opportunity for either team came in the 21st minute, when junior Caroline Porter came up with a takeaway at the Purple Knight 18 and had a clean look on goal but mis-struck a slow shot, which Braun easily stopped.
• Braun kept the game scoreless in the 36th minute, rushing to the top of the 18 to cover a through ball while under pressure.
• In the 50th minute, Braun stopped graduate student Josefine Stendahl's bid from the end line before junior Paulina Valentine (New Hyde Park, N.Y./Kellenberg Memorial) countered at the other end of the field, running onto a ball but pushing it wide left from the left side of the box.
• First-year Cassie Tofteroo (Bridgewater, Mass./Bridgewater-Raynham Regional), during her college debut, nutmegged a defender to gain space before having a shot from the right side of the box denied in the 60th minute.
• Braun fought traffic to intercept corner kick crosses in the 73rd and 76th minutes, sandwiched around redshirt first-year Nora Young ringing the post with a corner kick entry pass in the 75th minute and first-year Sydney Mercier having a follow-up try blocked.
• Early in overtime, the Purple Knights were awarded a free kick inside the midfield circle during the 94th minute. Gikas, who buried a 92nd-minute winner from nearly the same spot on Sept. 8, lofted this free kick into the box, where Zippin tried catching the ball but lost it amid chaos in the box, with Valentine providing initial pressure. Cummings pounced on the loose ball near the left post and fired it home at 93:31.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S GAME

• Tuesday at Stonehill College, 4 p.m.
• The Skyhawks qualified for three of the past four NCAA Tournaments.