Sept. 4, 2009
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.-The No. 13/10 Penn State women's soccer team dropped its first road match of the year, 2-1, at No. 5/5 Florida State on Friday night. The Nittany Lions were led by Alyssa Naeher, who made six saves, and Danielle Toney (one goal), at the Seminole Soccer Complex.
Behind the strength of Rachel Lim's 81st minute laser of a shot to the upper right corner of the net, Florida State (4-0) earned the win.
Penn State (2-2) found its offense mid-way through the second half when Toney used her great speed an excellent passing from Christine Nairn and Katie Schoepfer to score her third goal of the year in the 79th minute. A pass sent down by Nairn to the left of the goal saw Toney take control and sent it over the shoulder of Erin McNulty of Florida State.
Nikki Watts nearly tied the game at two apiece when her half volley sent McNulty back to her line to make a leaping save underneath the crossbar with just three minutes left. That chance would be the last-best chance the Nittany Lions would have in the game.
Earlier, the Seminoles used Tori Huster's 57th minute goal to go ahead 1-0. Huster's tally came off assists by Becky Edwards, who headed the ball, and Jessica Price, who threw the ball in.
A few minutes later Toney made a streaking run down the left flank and made a nice cut in the penalty area, but her shot was saved by Erin McNulty, resulting in a corner kick. Emma Thomson sent the kick into the goal area, where Melissa Hayes' header was punched out by McNulty to Toney. There, Toney sent the volley over the crossbar, thus ending the best scoring chance of the night for the Nittany Lions.
The earliest chance for Penn State came in the first half, just 6:15 into the game when Christine Nairn's shot caromed of the crossbar, nearly giving the underdogs an early 1-0 lead.
Florida State had a great chance near the end of the first half when a header needed a clearance off the PSU line to keep things scoreless going into halftime.
PSU was out-shot 16-9 by the Seminoles. Most of the action came in the second half, with FSU holding a 12-7 edge in shots.
Penn State committed six fouls to the 'Noles' four and each team picked up a caution on the night as Maddy Evans earned Penn State's first booking of the year and Huster also was carded.
The Nittany Lions will return to Happy Valley on Sunday when they host the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at 1:00 p.m. Rutgers enters the game at 3-0-1 after its 1-0 over Towson in Piscataway on Friday night.
For complete coverage of all the Nittany Lion soccer this season, go to www.GoPSUsports.com/sports/w-soccer.
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--NITTANY LIONS--