Sept. 2, 2012
MORGANTOWN, W. Va. - Eighth-ranked Penn State Women's Soccer (5-1-0) used two first half goals from seniors Maddy Evans (Glenside, Pa.) and Tani Costa (Honolulu, Hawaii) and a second half goal from senior Christine Nairn (Arnold, Md.) to earn a 3-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Panthers on Sunday afternoon. With the victory, Penn State wins the WVU 90 Minute Classic.
Penn State improves to 9-0-0 all-time against Pitt after recording 10 shots, six of which came on goal. The Nittany Lions allowed 10 shots by Pittsburgh, with four coming on net. Senior Erin McNulty (Winnipeg, Manitoba) played 65 minutes in goal and made one save. Redshirt freshman Britt Eckerstrom (Germantown, Md.) came in for McNulty and helped steer the combined shutout as she made three saves.
Just minutes into the game, Evans recorded an early shot on goal, which was saved by Pittsburgh goalkeeper Nicole D'Agostino. Nevertheless, Evans would put her second shot on in the seventh minute, this time putting it past D'Agostino to give the Nittany Lions a 1-0 advantage. Evans scored on a cross, as the goal was assisted by Nairn and Costa, who each had a total of three points in the game.
Costa's goal came towards the end of the half, moments after redshirt senior Bri Garcia (Babylon, N.Y.) put a shot on net that D'Agostino made a save on. Freshman Jenna Kalwa (Pennington, N.J.) played a ball to Costa at the 42-minute mark. From there, the senior struck it from 22 yards out and scored to give Penn State a 2-0 lead. The assist for Kalwa was the first of her career.
Just over three minutes into the second half, Nairn netted her team-leading seventh goal of the season to put the Nittany Lions up 3-0. Freshman Corey Persson (Danvers, Mass.), who earned the assist on Nairn's goal, played a nice thru-ball up the middle, where Nairn beat the goalkeeper one-on-one.
Penn State will be back in action this Saturday as it travels to BYU for a 9 p.m. ET contest.
Additionally, juniors Taylor Schram and Maya Haves will play in the U-20 World Cup semifinals against Nigeria on Tuesday. The match will be broadcast live on ESPNU and ESPN3 with coverage starting at 2:50 a.m. ET.
For complete coverage of Penn State women's soccer, please visit http://www.GoPSUsports.com/sports/w-soccer.
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