Women's Soccer Falls to #2 Saint Rose in Northeast-10 Semifinals
ALBANY, NY – The Merrimack women's soccer team,
ranked fourth in the Northeast-10 Tournament, dropped a 2-0
Northeast-10 semifinal match to top-ranked and unbeaten Saint Rose
Thursday afternoon at Albany Academy.
With the win, the Golden Knights, ranked second in the country,
return to the Northeast-10 Championship for the third straight
season and will take on the winner of #2 Franklin Pierce/#3 UMass
Lowell on Sunday.
Merrimack (13-5-3, 10-4-1 NE-10) will anxiously await
Monday's 7 p.m. NCAA Selection Show on www.ncaa.com to see if
it is selected to its third-straight and 10th NCAA Tournament.
Amanda Deck scored what proved to be the game-winner as she stole
the ball from a Warrior defender and fired a shot to the top right
corner of the net, past Brittany Gustafson (East Hampton,
CT) for her seventh of the year.
The Warriors, who outshot the Golden Knights 11-5 in the first
half, actually controlled the pace for most of the game. They
forced Susan Cowan to make four saves and fired three shots off the
crossbar, including two by Ashley Alnwick (Groton,
MA).
“It was probably our best game of the year,” said head
coach Gabe Mejail. “Saint Rose is a great
team, but I thought we outplayed them today. We certainly have a
lot to be proud of, but it's a tough way to go
out.”
Brittany Godin added an 85th minute strike, taking advantage of a
pressing Warrior attack to put the match away.
Gustafson stopped five shots in net, while six different Warriors
had a shot on goal. Merrimack attempted 16 shots, compared to just
11 for Saint Rose.
