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WEST CHESTER, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's soccer team eliminated the Atlantic Region's top seed West Chester from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference playoffs with a 2-1 win Thursday afternoon on the road.
Slippery Rock (11-5-2) was dominant in possession and put forth a defensive effort that yielded just one solid scoring chance the whole game, which came in the final minute after a rebounded shot.
The win advances The Rock to the PSAC semifinals Saturday where they will face No. 6 seed East Stroudsburg at 1:30 p.m. at California University (Pa.). The winner of that game will play the winner of the California-Edinboro game in the PSAC title game Sunday at noon at California.
Thursday's win marks the second consecutive year that Slippery Rock has eliminated West Chester (13-4-1) from the conference playoffs after The Rock defeated the Golden Rams 1-0 in the quarterfinals last fall.
Cailin Conner and
Shelby Ward scored goals for Slippery Rock with
Stephanie Buckenheimer recording an assist.
The Rock finished the game with a 5-4 edge in shots on goal, while West Chester managed a 3-2 edge in corner kicks.
Dana O'Neill earned the win in goal for SRU with three saves. Her counterpart, Shannon Fedyk, took the loss after recording three saves.
Conner opened the game's scoring when she fired a laser into the upper left corner of the net from 20 yards out on Slippery Rock's first shot of the game in the 16th minute.
Her tally would be the lone goal of the opening period with Slippery Rock taking a 1-0 lead into the break. Both teams registered two shots on goal in the half.
Ward scored the eventual game-winner in the 56th minute after she put home a rebound from a hard shot from Buckenheimer, whose initial shot was saved by a diving Fedyk.
From there, Slippery Rock kept the pressure on an continued to generate chances while not allowing West Chester any solid looks.
The Golden Rams made things interesting on the counter attack late in the game when Marie D'Angelo's shot bounced off the post and found the foot of Carly Yost, who scored into an empty net with 55 seconds left to cut the lead to 2-1.
West Chester could not advance the ball much deeper than midfield in the final minute as Slippery Rock held on for the upset.
The win is crucial for Slippery Rock's hopes of making the NCAA Tournament, as The Rock was ranked No. 7 in the region in this week's rankings released yesterday from the NCAA selection committee. Only the top six teams in the final poll after this week qualify for the tournament. West Chester was the No. 1 team in the region.
In other PSAC quarterfinal action, No.1 California defeated No. 8 Indiana, No. 4 Edinboro defeated No. 5 Kuztown 2-0 and No. 6 East Stroudsburg advanced past No. 3 Gannon in a shootout after the teams played to a 0-0 tie.
