Garnet Women Advance in ECACs
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. -- The resilient Swarthmore women's soccer team forged on Wednesday afternoon, advancing past Delaware Valley in the first round of the ECAC South Region Championships Wednesday afternoon. After a scoreless tie through 110 minutes of action, including two overtimes, the Garnet won a penalty-kick shootout, 4-3, to move to the semifinals for the third consecutive year.
Swarthmore (9-4-5), the No. 6 seed moves on to play the No. 2 seed Westminster (15-4-2), a 1-0 winner over No. 7 seed Catholic in another first-round match-up. The game will take place in Frostburg, Maryland on Saturday, Nov. 15 at 2:00 p.m. The first semifinal will feature top-seed Frostburg State (15-2-3) against the No. 4 seed Dickinson (13-3-4), set to start at 12:00 p.m. The final will also take place at Frostburg, kicking off at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 16. Click here for for visitor information to Frostburg State University.
On Wednesday, both teams converted three of the five penalty kicks in the initial shoot-out round. In the ensuing sudden-death round, Delaware Valley missed. Garnet senior forward Melinda Petre (Columbia, Md. / Atholton) calmly stepped up to the line and converted her opportunity, continuing Swarthmore’s crusade to defend its 2007 ECAC South Region title.
The Aggies (14-4-2), the No. 3 seed, amped up its offensive attack in the second half, out-shooting the Garnet 11-3. The Swarthmore backline, cemented by two-time All-Centennial goalkeeper Lauren Walker (Fallston, Md. / The Hotchkiss School [CT]), was up to the task. Delaware Valley midfielder Nicki Martini drilled a hard shot to the right side of the Garnet net at 70:50 but Walker quickly leaped to push the ball out of harm’s way.
The Swarthmore backs successfully bottled up talented Aggie forward Elise Dauber (53 career goals), the reigning Freedom Conference Player of the Year, for much of the afternoon. With five minutes left in regulation, Dauber found an opening as her teammate Kelsey Krammer chipped a ball to the top of the Garnet box to the streaking Aggie forward. Walker read the play and charged off her line, knocking away the Aggie shot attempt with under five minutes left in regulation.
Delaware Valley would register an 18-14 shot advantage at the end of regulation, 23-17 after the two overtimes. The Aggies also took nine corners to just three for Swarthmore.
Walker posted a season-high nine saves on the afternoon, registering her eighth shutout of the season. Courtney Bower made seven saves for Delaware Valley.
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Follow complete ECAC South Region coverage at ECACsports.com.