INDIANA, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's soccer team fell on the road to Indiana University (Pa.), 2-1, on Saturday afternoon.
With the loss, SRU falls to 12-3-0 overall with a 11-2-0 mark in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division. IUP improves to 9-5-0 with a 7-5-0 record in conference play.
Despite falling to IUP, The Rock maintains their three-point lead (33 points) over Edinboro University (30 points) in the PSAC Western Division standings.
Indiana opened the scoring when Mahogany Willis netted a pass from Gia Martyn just 9:52 into the contest to give the Crimson Hawks a 1-0 lead.
Slippery Rock responded when
Brooke Riefenstahl finished her first collegiate goal on a pass from
Shannon McIntyre to pull the game to a 1-1 tie in the 26th minute.
Both defenses settled in following the pair of scores, with Slippery Rock defending the next two IUP shots along with a corner kick attempt while Indiana turned away four Rock shots and six corner kicks, holding the 1-1 tie into halftime.
The Crimson Hawks struck just over two minutes into the second half when Willis scored her second goal of the game to give IUP the 2-1 advantage at 47:32.
Following the goal, the Crimson Hawk defense turned in a stellar performance, led by goalkeeper Madeline Smakulski. IUP fought off 10 Slippery Rock shots with Smakulski recording five second-half saves.
A corner kick attempt by SRU was turned away with just over three minutes remaining in the contest to secure the 2-1 victory for Indiana.
Slippery Rock held advantages in total shots (19-8), shots on goal (10-5) and corner kick attempts (14-1).
Riefenstahl led the way for The Rock on offense with a goal, two shots on goal and four total shots. McIntyre tied Riefenstahl for the lead in total shots with four while adding an assist.
Rachel Edge had three shots on goal with
Tyler Spence and
Ashley Rea adding two shots each off the bench.
Slippery Rock returns to action when it travels to California University (Pa.) for a PSAC Western Division matchup 7 p.m. Wednesday.
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