Nov. 19, 2017
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Three Nittany Lions found the back of the net to lift the No. 10 and third-seeded Penn State women's soccer team to a 3-1 victory over No. 7 and second-seeded West Virginia in the third round of the NCAA Tournament Sunday at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.
Penn State will now play No. 1 and top-seeded Stanford on Friday, Nov. 24. The match is slated for a 2 p.m. (PST) start at Laird Q. Cagan Stadium in Stanford, Calif.
With the victory, Penn State has won five straight contests to improve to 15-4-4 on the year, while the 2016 College Cup runner-up West Virginia Mountaineers close out the 2017 season at 16-4-3.
"I just want to start off by saying congratulations to West Virginia," head coach Erica Dambach said. "It's obviously a very good team, I think the game changed a little bit with the injury to their left back in the previous game. They had to make some changes moving Michaela [Abam] to the back line. From our standpoint, keeping her further away from goal certainly was a blessing because she is so tough to deal with.
"That's a great rivalry and through the years we have won some of those, we have lost some. I'm certainly proud of the group with the fight today. The best part of today from our standpoint was their response when we let up a goal. I was really proud the way that our group responded."
The Mountaineers took a 1-0 lead on Sh'Nia Gordon's fourth goal of the season at 33:11 before Penn State netted a pair of goals within a five-minute span to take a 2-1 lead heading into halftime.
Following Gordon's goal, Alina Ortega Jurado (Waldgirmes, Germany) scored her second goal of the weekend at 38:14 to tie the match at 1-1 and then Elizabeth Ball (Richmond, Va.) put the Nittany Lions in front, 2-1, at 42:48. Emily Ogle (Strongsville, Ohio) was credited with an assist on both Penn State goals in the first half.
After the first 45 minutes of action, Penn State led West Virginia, 2-1, and outshot the Mountaineers, 6-3.
Almost 10 minutes into the second half, the Nittany Lions added to their lead at 54:29 on Frannie Crouse's (Greensburg, Pa.) fourth goal of the season. From Penn State's penatly area, Ball brought the ball down the majority of the field and found Crouse with just the WVU keeper to beat. With the ball, Crouse placed the ball past West Virginia goalkeeper Rylee Foster and into the back of the net for her 37th career goal.
Trailing 3-1 for the majority of the second half, the Mountaineers continued to press, but were unable to cut into the Nittany Lion lead. During the final minutes of regulation, Michaela Abam fired a shot that just went inches left of the net.
In net, Nittany Lion goalkeeper Rose Chandler (Atlanta, Ga.) made a pair of saves for her 15th victory of the season, while Foster recorded three saves on the night.
NOTES: Penn State leads the all-time series against West Virginia, 8-7-2...Penn State outshot West Virginia, 10-9...Megan Schafer played in her 95th career game...Ortega Jurado has scored in back-to-back matches...Ball tallied a career-best three-point outing...Penn State is 50-20-2 all-time in the NCAA Tournament...Penn State is now 11-2-1 all-time in the third round of the NCAA Tournament...Dambach is now 27-12-1 in the NCAA Tournament as a head coach...Penn State advanced to its third quarterfinal round in the past four years (2014, '15 & '17)...Penn State is 10-1-1 when scoring at least two goals this season...Penn State is 5-2-1 against ranked opponents in 2017...Crouse now owns sole possession of 10th all-time in goals scored at PSU (37)...Penn State is now unbeaten in its last six matches (5-0-1).