Women's Soccer Prepares for NCAA Sweet Sixteen on Friday

NCAA Interactive Bracket
Directions to Mercy

WEST CHESTER, Pa.-The West Chester women's soccer team (16-3-2) is on to the Sweet Sixteen where they will square off against a familiar foe in East Stroudsburg (15-3-4) for the chance to play highest remaining seed out of the East region for a chance to go the Final Four. This game is scheduled to kick off on Friday morning at 11 am.

These games will be played in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. at Mercy Field on the campus of Mercy College who is the No. 2 seed and the highest remaining seed in the East region after No. 1 seed Adelphi fell to LIU-Post on Sunday afternoon.

This is the first time in the schools Division II history that both the men's and women's teams have played in the Sweet Sixteen in the same year. 

West Chester enters off a thrilling victory in the second round over Notre Dame college where they won by a 5-4 margin in Penalty Kicks. West Chester had their share of opportunities throughout the 110 minutes of soccer but they were unable to finish sending the game to PKs.

Heading into penalty kicks  McKenna Mullin (5 saves on the afternoon) (Langhorne, Pa./Neshaminy)  gave way to Brooke Myers (Middletown, Pa./Middletown Area) who handled the seven rounds of Penalty Kicks. Notre Dame jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the PKs but the Golden Rams remained unphased as they began their comeback in the third round when Myers made a big save and senior captain Kaitlyn McFadden (West Nyack, N.Y./Albertus Magnus) buried a PK to make the score 2-1 at the end of the third round. West Chester and Notre Dame traded goals in the fourth round as Shannon Cooley (Frederick, Md./Urbana) found the back of the net to keep West Chester alive. After another big save by Myers Mandy McCarthy (Macungie, Pa./Emmaus) converted her opportunity to send the penalty kicks to a sixth round.

 In the sixth round Hannah Grandell (West Chester, Pa./Unionville) kept the Golden Rams alive following a successful Notre Dame penalty kick sending her teammates into a frenzy and sending the game to a seventh round. In the seventh round Myers made a huge save and put the game on the foot of Kaitlyn McFadden (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Ryan) who was taking her first career PK as a Golden Ram. McFadden capitalized on this opportunity as she struck the ball cleanly sending it soaring into the upper right hand corner of the net and sending her team on to the next round and the fans into a frenzy.

ESU enters off a PK victory of their own as they topped the No. 3 seed West Virginia Wesleyan by a 5-4 margin in penalty kicks.

The winner of this game will advance to the elite eight which will take place on Sunday in Dobbs Ferry against the winner of the East Regional final between No. 2 seed Mercy and No. 4 seed LIU-Post which will also be played on Friday afternoon.