The Quad

Issue date: 11/5/07 Section: Sports

It was a cold and bitter Sunday afternoon when the women's soccer team took on Slippery Rock for the PSAC championship. The Rams played host and defeated the visitors 2-0. The win sends the Golden Rams into the NCAA Women's Soccer tournament with an automatic bid from the PSAC while Slippery Rock will have to wait and hope to gain an at-large bid.

"We played great soccer today, we always have to look at our last game. I think the tournament is wide open, if we continue to play like we played today we can go very far," head coach Kempf Townsley said about the victory and the automatic bid.

The victory for the Rams was not easy, Slippery Rock came to South Campus Field and played a tightly contested match which was scoreless for most of the game.

The first scoring chance came off a free kick in the 11th minute. As Slippery Rock was attempting to clear the ball, one of the defenders feet struck Brittany Yetter in the upper body. Yetter walked off on her own power and the Rams received an indirect kick from inside the box. The shot was heading straight into the goal but a Slippery Rock defender was able to volley the shot out of the box to bail their goaltender out and keep the score tied at 0-0. Yetter returned to play minutes later after the hard hit and would make a large impact later.

West Chester managed to hit two balls of the crossbar in the first half. The first came on a free kick that Yetter sent towards the goal and just off the bar. Towards the end of the first half it was Sarah Oswald beating two Slippery Rock players off the dribble setting up Christine Thurwanger to slam the ball off the crossbar and just out of the reach of Danielle Gerz.

The game went into halftime scoreless with the Rams dictating the play. Lauren McManus, the Slippery Rock goalie, was forced to make five saves to keep the score knotted through forty-five minutes. The Rock brought a physical game to South Campus Field picking up 9 fouls along with a yellow card to the Rams 4 fouls at halftime.

Danielle Gurtz set up a penalty kick in the 73rd minute when the Rams won the ball from the Slippery Rock defender and sent a cross into the middle. To stop Gurtz from heading the ball into the empty net the defense was forced to trip her from behind and set up a penalty kick.

With the championship hanging in the air it was Brittany Yetter, who had been previously injured, put on the stop to take the penalty kick.

Continued...

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