April 1, 2010
DOWNINGTOWN, Pa. -- With the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league announcing its official rosters on Thursday, Nittany Lion soccer alumnus Joanna Lohman made the most of her opportunity on the field, scoring the lone goal in a 1-0 Philadelphia Independence win over the Penn State women's soccer team. The game is the first Penn State has dropped this spring.
In a tense match that featured back-and-forth play and plenty of scoring chances for the Nittany Lions, especially late, Lohman's strike against her alma mater was all the Independence needed.
Playing in its inaugural season, Philadelphia, like the other WPS member teams, whittled its training roster to its official 22-player squad on Thursday. Lohman was one of the 18 to make the Independence roster on Thursday.
Penn State attempted to bounce back in the second half, forcing the pace of play. A free kick opportunity by Christine Nairn (Arnold, Md.) in the 60th minute was parried away by the Philadelphia goalkeeper Val Henderson for the Nittany Lions' best chance of the game up until that point.
Penn State almost knotted the score again in stoppage time of the second half as a flurry of shots and activity were again saved by Henderson and another shot just went wide on the final play of the game.
Krissy Tribbett (Centennial, Colo.) and Kristin Hartmann (Katy, Texas) both saw time for the Nittany Lions who fell to 2-1 on the spring season. Penn State caps exhibition play for Spring 2010 with a pair of games on April 17 vs. Penn and Pittsburgh in Happy Valley before hosting Maryland during Blue-White weekend on April 23.
--NITTANY LIONS--
was the final exhibition tuneup for the Independence