Oct. 26, 2004

Final Stats

Slippery Rock, Pa. - All-America forward Sarah Arsenault scored a pair of penalty-kick goals Tuesday and Kelly Shoup added an unassisted goal to lead the 12th-ranked Rock to a 3-0 win over visiting California U. of Pa. that clinches the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division title for SRU.

The title is the second successive regular-season crown won by 10th-year Noreen Herlihy's squad. A year ago, before the conference was divided into Western and Eastern Divisions, SRU captured the PSAC regular-season and playoff titles.

Tuesday's win improved The Rock's overall record to 12-2-2 and its PSAC-West mark to 8-1-1. Cal dropped to 5-13-1, 2-6-1.

Lock Haven could still finish with the identical conference record, but The Rock would win the tiebreaker on the basis of a 2-1 win over the Bald Eagles on Sept. 18 in the teams' first meeting this fall. SRU and LHU battled to a 2-2 stalemate in the second meeting on Oct. 6 in Lock Haven.

By winning the Western Division title, The Rock secured the home field advantage throughout the conference playoffs. SRU will meet either Lock Haven or Indiana U. of Pa. in a semifinal game on Nov. 5 with the winner of that game advancing to the conference final on Nov. 7.

First, though, The Rock will look to avenge an earlier 2-0 loss to East Stroudsburg when the two teams meet at noon on Saturday in a PSAC interdivisional contest on James W. Egli Field.

In Tuesday's game, Arsenault scored what proved to be the game-winning goal on a penalty kick in the 32nd minute of action and added another penalty-kick tally in the 58th minute.

Shoup converted a deflected shot off a penalty corner into SRU's second goal in the 41st minute.

The Rock outshot Cal by a 34-6 margin in the game. SRU goalie Karrine Riggins recorded five saves en route to her sixth shutout of the season.