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Sept. 10, 2017
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The No. 5 Penn State women's soccer team dropped a 3-2 decision to the No. 8 Virginia Cavaliers Sunday afternoon at Klöckner Stadium. Sunday's match featured the two teams combine for 23 fouls.
Virginia (5-2-0) opened up the afternoon by outshooting the Nittany Lions, 4-0, over the first seven minutes of action.
The Cavaliers struck first during the third minute of play on Courtney Petersen's first goal of the 2017 season. From the left side of the field, Petersen played the ball into the box, but the ball ended up getting carried by the wind and found the upper-right corner of the net for a Virginia goal at 2:50.
Penn State's (4-2-0) first shot on goal came in the 11th minute, as Marissa Sheva (Sellersville, Pa.) fired a shot from close-range, but Virginia goalkeeper Laurel Ivory was able to get her right foot on the ball to keep the Nittany Lions off the scoreboard.
Heading into the closing minutes of the first half, Charlotte Williams (Rochester, N.Y.) connected with Haleigh Echard (Lebanon, Pa.) for a Penn State goal.
On the left side of the box, Echard put the ball past Ivory and into the bottom-right corner of the net to tie the match at 1-1 on her first goal of the season in the 44th minute.
The two teams went into halftime tied in shots on goal, 4-4, with Virginia leading Penn State in shots attempted, 7-6.
Virginia came out of the break tallying a pair of shot attempts within the first five minutes of action. After PSU blocked a shot attempt from Taryn Torres in the 48th minute, Virginia took back the lead on a goal from Betsy Brandon at 49:06. On the goal, Brandon connected on a header from six-yards out to make it 2-1.
After a Penn State corner kick over three minutes later, a Cavalier was called for a handball in the penalty area setting up a penalty kick for the Nittany Lions. For the third time this season, Emily Ogle (Strongsville, Ohio) stepped up and converted the penalty kick to tie the match at 2-2 at 52:57.
Virginia then made it a 3-2 contest during the 62nd minute on a free kick from Phoebe McClernon from 45-yards out. On the play, McClernon played the ball into the box and while going up for the ball, Nittany Lion goalkeeper Rose Chandler (Atlanta, Ga.) was collided with by a Cavalier in the air, and the ball went into the back of the net.
In net, Chandler finished the afternoon with five saves, while Ivory made four saves for Virginia.
The Nittany Lions return home to Jeffrey Field to open the Big Ten regular season on Thursday, Sept. 14, against the Northwestern Wildcats. The match is slated for a 7 p.m. start live on the Big Ten Network.
NOTES: Penn State leads the all-time series against Virginia, 7-5-1…Virginia outshot Penn State, 16-10…Penn State falls to 140-10-4 when scoring at least two goals under Coach Dambach…Emily Ogle improves to 3-for-3 on penalty kicks this season, and is 4-for-4 in her career…Ogle scored the 13th goal of her career on Sunday, which ranks tied for 23rd at PSU (Z. Bouchelle '08 & S. Pickett '00)...Charlotte Williams netted her fifth assist of the season Sunday…Williams tallied four assists in 2016 and seven assists in 2015...Williams' assist Sunday was the 16th of her Nittany Lion career, which ranks tied for 25th at PSU (J. Verdrager '00).