Nov. 13, 2010
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MORGANTOWN, W. Va. -- The Penn State women's soccer team tackles its biggest game of the season on Sunday against hosts and 14th-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. All the action can be followed through a free live stream on NCAA.com All-Access and GameTracker for live stats. PSU will also provide commentary and updates through the team's official Twitter (@PSUWomensSoccer) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/PSUWomensSoccer) feeds.
The Nittany Lions earned their second straight shutout and fifth straight win with a 1-0 blanking of the Penn Quakers. A tense battle between evenly matched teams saw Penn State's speed wear out Penn's defense. Danielle Toney (Northville, Mich.) glided around the Quaker backline to the right wing and slid a ground cross through the goal mouth to Tani Costa (Honolulu, Hawaii) who put it away for the lone goal, her ninth of the year and third game-winner of the season.
Two of Costa's three game-winners have come at Dick Dlesk Stadium, the other coming in a 2-1 overtime-victory over West Virginia on opening night, Aug. 20. In that game, Penn State controlled the tempo from beginning to end, out-shooting the Mountaineers 23-10, including 11-2 with shots on goal. Toney opened the scoring in the 21st minute with a breakaway goal on the left wing after a clever touch by Hayley Brock (Acton, Mass.) off a Krissy Tribbett (Centennial, Colo.) clearance past midfield.
Eleven minutes later, Bri Rodriguez received a ball about 25 yards out and dribbled past the Nittany Lion defense and ripped a gorgeous shot to the upper right netting to even the score. After a scoreless second half, a combo play of Carly Niness (Berwyn, Pa.) just inside PSU's half found Christine Nairn (Arnold, Md.). The sophomore midfielder played a long ball to Brock on the left wing. The freshman dribbled forward, cut inside and laid a nice pass off to Costa, who took one step right, cut left and ripped a shot into the right-side netting for the game-winner.
The win over West Virginia snapped a four-game losing streak for PSU against the Mountaineers and has proven to be the only loss WVU has suffered all season (9-1-1).
WVU, who won 2-0 over Morehead State on Friday night behind two Rodriguez goals, is seeded third in the Portland bracket. The winner of Sunday's match moves on to face the Boston College-Hofstra victor, a match taking place in Newton, Mass. That game is scheduled for Nov. 19, 20 or 21.
West Virginia is on a 13-game winning streak after rolling through Big East play and the Conference tournament. This will be Penn State's 13th appearance in the NCAA Second Round. Last season, Penn State fell at home to Virginia. The last PSU second-round win came on Nov. 18, 2007 with a thrilling 2-1 come-from-behind victory over Hofstra. That led to a clash with West Virginia, who moved on to the NCAA Quarterfinals with a 1-0 victory, the last time the two teams met in the NCAA Tournament.
Tickets to the Penn State-West Virginia match are $7 for general admission seating and $5 for youth/senior citizen tickets.
--NITTANY LIONS--