Nov. 16, 2007
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - In her first NCAA game as Penn State's head coach, Erica Walsh' s team gave her the best birthday gift on Friday night, a 4-0 victory to advance the No. 1 seed Nittany Lions to the NCAA second round. The second round match-up will be played Sunday at Penn State's home, Jeffrey Field, at 1 p.m. The Nittany Lions' will meet Hofstra Sunday for the first time in school history. The Pride earned their second-round berth with a 1-0 defeat of Ohio State in the late game on Friday.
After the game, senior forward Aubrey Aden-Buie felt like the win was a positive step forward for the Nittany Lions. "We're really excited. It gives us a lot of momentum to get a solid win going into the rest of the tournament, so it was exciting."
Penn State's win came off a double-threat effort from both the veterans and the newcomers vs. the Hawks as senior Aden-Buie and freshman Danielle Toney (Northville, Mich.) both scored two goals on the day.
"I thought that second goal was the turning point, said Penn State head coach Erica Walsh. "We had been playing well up to that point, but to get that second one took us into the second half feeling good about ourselves. I do think that was the time of the game that really turned the game in our direction."
Toney got the Nittany lions on the board under minutes into the game when a rebound from one of Aden-Buie's shots rolled to her and she made the deposit from 8-yards out.
Penn State continued to apply heavy pressure throughout the first half, out-shooting the Hawks 12-4 in the first half. Aden-Buie put the Nittany Lions up 2-0 before halftime when freshman Bianca D'Agostino (Longmeadow, Mass.) found her with the cross-field pass. Aden-Buie beat the Monmouth goalkeeper to her left side and hit the open goal from the left side of the box.
Aden-Buie netted her fifth career NCAA goal when freshman Meghan Monroig (Northumberland, Pa.) assisted her left-to-right goal to make it 3-0 PSU with less than 27 minutes remaining. Toney added the icing on the cake with her goal at 73:25 off an assist from Ashley Myers (Bel Air, Md.) to give Penn State the 4-0 victory. Toney's two-goal effort, which included the game-winner, was the first multiple-goal game of her career.
Sophomore Alyssa Naeher (Seymour, Conn.) got three saves in 77:12 minutes of action to raise her record to 17-3-2 this season. The win was her second in the NCAA Tournament after playing only the first game for PSU last year before being sidelined with injury.
"From talking this week, the first weekend is always the scariest weekend," said Naeher. "So even though Monmouth isn't a very well-known team, they're a very dangerous team. Just getting past them is a good step."
The Nittany Lions' win brings their NCAA first round record to 7-2 (.778) all-time. The team is now 21-4 (.840) in NCAA games at Jeffrey Field. The victory was the first NCAA win at Penn State for Walsh, who now owns a 4-3 all-time record in NCAA play.
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