ERIE, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's soccer team was eliminated from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Tournament after falling on the road to Gannon University in a 4-2 loss Monday night.
 
The Rock ends its tournament run with a 12-4-3 overall record while the Golden Knights move on to the semifinal round of the PSAC Tournament riding a 14-3-2 mark on the year.
 
Skylar Munnikhuysen and Libby Zacharyasz scored The Rock's final goals of the season, with both coming from Ashley Rea assists. Rea's two assists earn her 10 points over the last four games of her career at SRU.
 
Munnikhuysen led The Rock's offense rifling two shots, the only Rock athlete with more than one shot on the day.
 
Leah Allman recorded four saves in net making her 19^th consecutive start in her freshman year.
 
Slippery Rock found itself with great chances early against a strong Gannon defense. Bailey McGee sent a beautiful shot at Gannon goalkeeper Morgan Sinan in the 14^th minute, but was narrowly denied when Sinan flicked it over the bar.
 
SRU's wait to score was extended by 30 minutes when lightning in the area imposed a weather delay in the 29^th minute.
 
Brooke Riefenstahl found herself with a prime opportunity in the 32^nd minute, receiving a near-side corner kick. Riefenstahl laid it over for Faith Diffenbacher who fired a shot from just outside the box, whistling inches high of the crossbar.
 
The Rock finally found the back of the net in the 40^th minute when Rea flew a line drive of a free kick forward into the box, where Zacharyasz dove forward to secure her fifth goal on the year.
 
Despite getting outshot in the first half, 9-4, Slippery Rock was able to take a 1-0 lead into the half.
 
Gannon not only found the equalizer in the 62^nd minute, but stole the lead with a second goal in the 66^th minute of play.
 
Just 1:14 later, Rea again found herself with the lending hand, swinging a corner kick to the far post where Munnikhuysen awaited with the scoring header to level the game at 2-2.
 
The Golden Knights jousted right back into battle, though, taking a 3-2 lead a mere 1:53 later, and extending The Rock's deficit to two goals with a 71^st minute goal.
 
Munnikhuysen heaved a ball toward net in the 78^th minute that was stopped for what would end up being Slippery Rock's last look at net.
 
Gannon secured its 4-2 victory while holding a lead in shots (25-7), shots on goal (8-4) and corner kicks (8-5).
 
Monday's contest likely concludes Slippery Rock's 2023 season as SRU was not included in the most recent set of Atlantic Region rankings released last week. Slippery Rock has now recorded a winning record in 27 consecutive years in which a full season was played.
 



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