INDIANA, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's soccer team suffered its first Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division loss of the year in a 3-0 defeat at Indiana University (Pa.) Saturday.
 
The setback pushes The Rock to a 1-2-2 overall record and a 1-1-1 start to conference play. The Crimson Hawks stayed unbeaten on the year, improving to a 3-0-1 mark on the year and a 2-0-1 showing in PSAC West play.
 
The Crimson Hawks scored a pair of goals in the first half and padded their lead with a third goal early in the second. The game saw a prolonged halftime break with inclement weather interrupting play.
 
Faith Diffenbacher and Olivia Yoder both produced three shots for SRU's offense. Yoder led Slippery Rock with two shots on goal while Diffenbacher landed on of her attempts on net.
 
Bailey McGee and Sydney Patrick were the only starters other than Diffenbacher to get a shot off, while Jaime Dermotta and Lindsey Price aided with one shot each off the bench.
 
Leah Allman made three saves in goal for Slippery Rock.
 
SRU claimed three of the game's first four shots as well as two corners in the opening 19 minutes. It only took IUP two shots for Hannah Scardina to find the back of the net, giving the Crimson Hawks a 1-0 lead in the 22^nd minute
 
Scardina, who scored a combined three goals in two losses against Slippery Rock last year, snuck another one past Allman again in the 30^th minute to put Indiana up, 2-0.
 
The Rock kept the offense coming in bunches by firing the final two shots of the first half, but were unable to get on the board. SRU owned a 7-5 lead in shots through the opening 45 minutes.
 
Once play resumed in the second half, it did not take long for Indiana substitute Kristen Finnerty to score on her lone shot of the game, which came in the 51^st minute.
 
SRU found promising opportunities to cut into the three-goal deficit on a 64^th-minute corner kick taken by Patrick. McGee was able to get on the other end of it, but saw her shot hit the crossbar.
 
The midfield is where most of the action occurred for the game's final 21 minutes, a span that saw each team take a corner kick but produce zero shots.
 
Despite the 3-0 loss, Slippery Rock left IUP with leads in shots (10-9) and corner kicks (6-3). Indiana took six shots on goal as opposed to Slippery Rock's four. Scardina was far and away IUP's star of the game, taking six of the team's nine shots in addition to netting her brace.
 
The Rock will look to bounce back 6 p.m. Wednesday under the lights at Edinboro.





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