Sept. 15, 2013
TULSA, Okla. - The 13th ranked Penn State women's soccer team finished out its non-conference slate with an exciting 3-2 victory over Tulsa on Sunday afternoon. Senior Maya Hayes (West Orange, N.J.) came up big for the Nittany Lions, scoring the game-winning goal in the 89th minute.
Sophomore Mallory Weber (Novi, Mich.) and senior Tani Costa (Honolulu, Hawaii) also netted goals for PSU.
The Blue and White improve to 6-1-1 and have won five-straight matches while the Golden Hurricane drops to 5-2 on the season.
"The game got stretched early and we needed to make some adjustments throughout the course of the first half," said Penn State head coach Erica Walsh. "We had trouble solving it in the first half but we came out in the second half and things got a little bit better. The game did not really have a flow today, we just had to gut it out and figure out a way to win."
Weber notched the first goal of the match, putting the ball into the net in the 22nd minute. The sophomore got the ball on a high arcing cross from Emily Hurd (Sammamish, Wash.) and headed it in from four yards out to give Penn State a 1-0 advantage.
Senior Taylor Schram (Canonsburg, Pa.) had a great opportunity to extend the Lions' lead four minutes later as she made an attempt from six yards out but Tulsa keeper Hayley Harryman would not allow it, coming up with the save.
Tulsa's best looks of the half came in the 28th and 31st minutes with Alexa Sidorakis and Camille Pelley making attempts. PSU keeper Britt Eckerstrom (Germantown, Md.) was up to the task, collecting saves on both efforts.
Claire Nicholson got the Golden Hurricane on the board in the 57th minute of action after Tulsa was awarded a penalty kick. Eckerstrom went left and Nicholson chose right, sending the ball into the back of the net and tying the game at 1-1.
The goal seemed to inspire TU as three of its seven second half shots came in the next 10 minutes. Linsday Kirsch had an opportunity to give the Golden Hurricane the lead in the 63rd minute, firing off a shot from 18 yards out, but Eckerstrom was there to make the save.
Schram came close again in the second half, attempting a shot in the 69th minute from eight yards out, but just missed as the ball collided with the far post.
The Nittany Lions pulled ahead at the 73:42 mark with Costa tallying her second goal of the season. Hurd dropped the ball to Costa, who then beat the keeper and tapped the ball in from seven yards out to give the Blue and White a 2-1 lead.
Leading by one with just over four minutes remaining, it looked as though Penn State had the game won but the Golden Hurricane thought otherwise. Kirsch dropped the ball to Kajal Parmar and Parmar crossed it to Pelley, who scored the equalizer on a sliding kick from seven yards out.
Pelley's efforts were not enough to send the game into overtime, however, as Hayes responded with the game-winner with 20 seconds remaining. The senior ripped one into the top of the net from 15 yards out on an assist from Schram, putting the final score at 3-2 in Penn State's favor.
"There's nobody that I would rather have the ball with 30 seconds left in a tied game than Maya Hayes," said Walsh. "She has proven time and time again that she can score goals in the biggest situations and she came through again for us today."
The Lions return to Jeffrey Field on Friday to host Northwestern in their Big Ten Opener. The match is slated for a 7 p.m. start.