Box Score
WEST CHESTER, Pa. – Win and advance. That’s what the postseason is all about. It’s the phrase that most coaches pull out of the drawer of clichés when a higher seed struggles, but manages to move on in the playoffs. And that is the phrase that most accurately describes West Chester University’s 1-0 women’s soccer victory over Shippensburg in the quarterfinal round of the 2010 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference postseason tournament on Tuesday afternoon.
West Chester (17-1-0) received a goal from sophomore Melissa McKeary in the 41st minute and made that stand up en route to a slimmest of margins win over the eight-seed Shippensburg (10-8-1) at South Campus Field on a sunny, but chilly afternoon.
The top-seeded Golden Rams advance to the PSAC semifinals to face fifth-seeded Slippery Rock, who upset fourth-seeded Bloomsburg, 2-1, on Tuesday. The rest of the higher seeds held serve in the quarterfinals. Second-seeded California (Pa.) shut out seventh-seeded Indiana (Pa.), 2-0, while third-seed Kutztown easily walked past sixth-seeded Edinboro, 5-1.
The defending tournament champions looked like anything but for much of the match. However, West Chester’s defense came up strong when it had to, and sophomore goalkeeper Lyndsie Bernardini (16-1-0) made three saves in goal to earn her 14th shutout of the season.
West Chester’s lone goal came off a pretty pass from senior Devon Swaim along the end line just to the left of Shippensburg goalkeeper Megan Delio. Swaim centered the ball to McKeary, who was camped out on the right-hand side of the goal. Her toe-flick placed the ball in the upper right-hand corner of the goal for what would prove to be the game-winner. It was McKeary’s fourth goal of the season and Swaim’s sixth assist on the year.
Shippensburg’s Emily Andrew hit the cross bar late in the game with about six minutes left, and Brittany Hibshman placed a shot just high that may have grazed the cross bar with about five minutes left in the first half, for the Raiders’ two best scoring opportunities. Hibshman broke in on Bernardini all alone and let her shot go from about 16 yards out.
The shutout was the fourth straight blanking by West Chester’s defense. The Golden Rams have blanked eight of their last nine opponents altogether and have 15 shutouts on the year. West Chester has now won four straight PSAC Tournament games and is 8-1 in its last nine postseason tournament contests. The Rams won the conference tournament in 2006, 2007 and 2009.
West Chester will be making its 11th appearance in the conference semifinals on Friday. The Golden Rams are 4-6 in their previous 10 trips to the conference semifinals.
Host West Chester will play Slippery Rock at 11 a.m. at South Campus Field with California (Pa.) taking on Kutztown in the other semifinal at 1:30 p.m. Cal versus Kutztown is a rematch of a semifinal tilt from last fall won by the Golden Bears. West Chester defeated IUP in the other semifinal a year ago.
