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CALIFORNIA, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's soccer team continued its incredible run through the postseason with a 1-0 victory at No. 16 California University (Pa.) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament Sunday at the Philipsburg Soccer Complex.
The win sends Slippery Rock through to the Round of 16 for the second consecutive year, where Slippery Rock will meet West Chester University Friday at West Chester. The winner of that game will advance to the quarterfinals to play the winner of the East Region Sunday at West Chester. Game times have yet to be announced.
Sunday's win was the first Slippery Rock win over California in the NCAA Tournament after the Vulcans eliminated The Rock in each of the previous two seasons, including last year in the Round of 16. Slippery Rock, which handed California a 3-0 loss last week in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championship game, handed the Vulcans their first back-to-back home losses since the 2007 season.
The Rock overcame adversity from the opening whistle in Sunday's second round, enduring a barrage of hard fouls from the Vulcans, who finished with 15 fouls and two cautions.
Slippery Rock played with four true freshmen on the field for most of the game, and those freshmen ended up being the heroes of the game.
The only goal scored came in the 49th minute when
Crysta Ganter, who was on in place of leading scorer
Lucy Hannon, split two defenders and trickled the ball passed Cal keeper Ashley Magruda, who collided with Ganter as the shot was taken. Fellow freshman
Cailin Conner picked up the assist on the play in what was the only goal SRU would need.
Dana O'Neill was perfect in goal for the 10th time this season and for the second consecutive game against the high-powered California attack, finishing with four saves, including one on the near post with 55 seconds to play.
Magruda took the loss for the Vulcans after recording two saves.
Slippery Rock finished the game with a 5-1 advantage in corner kicks, while California earned a 10-8 edge in total shots and a 4-3 edge in shots on target.
The Rock controlled much of the pace of play in the opening period and nearly scored when Conner's shot hit the crossbar and bounced straight down, but the referees determined the ball never crossed the goal line to keep the game scoreless in the opening 45 minutes.
Slippery Rock scored just 3:02 into the second half and kept the pressure on, only allowing Cal one solid scoring chance, which was saved in the final minute. The Vulcans were awarded two free kicks from just outside the box, but both sailed widely off target.
In the other half of the Atlantic Region, West Chester earned a 1-0 victory over West Virginia Wesleyan Sunday to advance to the Round of 16. Slippery Rock and West Chester split a pair of meetings earlier this year, with WCU earning a slim 2-1 win in overtime during the regular season and Slippery Rock posting a 2-1 win in the opening round of the PSAC playoffs. Both games took place at West Chester.
More details on game times and live coverage options and a complete game preview of the third round match will be posted at www.RockAthletics.com later this week.
