Nov. 1, 2005

Final Stats

Slippery Rock, Pa. - Meghan McGrath scored two goals Tuesday afternoon to lead The Rock to a 4-1 win over visiting Edinboro in quarterfinal action of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference playoffs on Bob DiSpirito Field at N. Kerr Thompson Stadium.

With the win, The Rock earned a berth in the conference semifinals for the third successive season.

The Rock will take an 11-5-3 record into Friday's 1 p.m. semifinal match at defending conference champion Indiana U. of Pa. (13-3-1).

Friday's game will be a rematch of last year's semifinal match, which Indiana won by a 1-0 margin on SRU's James W. Egli Soccer Field.

The Rock will also look to avenge a 1-0 loss to Indiana on Oct. 10 on Egli Field in the teams' second meeting of the season.

SRU and IUP battled to a 0-0 tie in double overtime Sept. 10 in Indiana.

A win Friday would put The Rock in the PSAC finals for the second time in three seasons.

The Rock won the conference title in 2003 with a 4-3 win over Lock Haven on Egli Field.

The winner of Friday's Rock at Indiana game will meet the winner of the other semifinal game in Sunday's title game.

Kutztown (13-6-1) will travel to nationally ranked West Chester (17-0-2) for the other semifinal game. The winner of that game will host Sunday's conference final.

The Rock's quarterfinal win on Tuesday will go down in the books as a "come-from-behind" triumph as Edinboro scored the game's first goal in the fifth minute of action.

McGrath tied the score at 1-1 with an unassisted goal in the 27th minute, then scored what proved to be the game-winning tally off an assist from Danielle Cooper in the 47th minute.

Julie Kirwan converted an assist from Martina Hall into SRU's third goal in the 74th minute of action.

Hall then took an assist from Cheryl Wickerham in the 79th minute and scored the final goal of the game.

The Rock outshot Edinboro by a 20-12 margin as both Rock goalie Jen McCormick and Edinboro's Trish Chilcott recorded seven saves.

Tuesday's game marked the third meeting this season between The Rock and Edinboro. The teams battled to 0-0 ties in double overtimes in both of their regular-season duels, the latest of which came last Saturday on Egli Field.