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CALIFORNIA, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's soccer team advanced to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference finals with a dominant 3-0 win over East Stroudsburg Saturday in the semifinals played at the Philipsburg Soccer Complex in California.
Slippery Rock will meet top-seeded California University (Pa.) in the championship game Sunday at noon after California earned a 2-1 win over No. 4 seed Edinboro in the day's opening game.
The Rock was dominant from the outset Saturday and finished the game with advantages of 25-9 in total shots, 9-8 in shots on goal and 6-2 in corner kicks.
Slippery Rock advances to the PSAC title game for the fourth time in the history of the program and for the first time since 2007. The Rock claimed the league title in 2003 and again in 2005 before dropping its last appearance in the final against West Chester in 2007.
Lauren Impey,
Shelby Ward and
Cailin Conner all found the net for Slippery Rock while
Lucy Hannon recorded two assists and
Nicole Krueger added one assist.
Dana O'Neill earned the shutout in goal with eight saves, while her counterpart, Brittain Wagner, took the loss after allowing three goals and recording six saves.
Ward was a dominant force on the wing, creating chances all day. She hit the post twice on breakaways, was pulled down inside the box on a breakaway and was constantly pulling Wagner off her line to defend the break.
Impey opened the game's scoring in the 24th minute when she fired a hard shot into the lower left corner of the net off a corner kick from Hannon to make it 1-0 Slippery Rock.
That tally would stand as the only of the first half with The Rock taking a 10-3 advantage in shots and a 4-1 edge in corner kicks into the intermission.
Ward, after hitting the post minutes earlier on a breakaway, dribbled around Wagner and scored into an empty net off an assist from Hannon in the 82nd minute to make it 2-0.
Slippery Rock added an insurance tally in the 89th minute when Krueger found Conner alone in front of the net for the easy score.
Saturday's win is also significant in terms of The Rock's hopes of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament. At the time of this week's rankings, East Stroudsburg was No. 6 in the region with Slippery Rock No. 7. Only the top six teams get into the national playoffs, and the WVIAC will steal one of those six bids via the automatic qualifier.
Since the rankings came out, Slippery Rock has defeated the No. 1 seed West Chester on the road and handily defeated No. 6 East Stroudsburg.
The Rock can clinch an NCAA tournament appearance no matter what with a win in tomorrow's title game. If SRU loses the title game, it will wait for the NCAA selection show Monday night to find out which team's qualify from the region.
A complete game preview for Sunday's title game against California, complete with live coverage links, will be posted to www.RockAthletics.com Saturday evening.
