MILLERSVILLE, Pa.- Faith Matter (Middletown, Pa./Middletown) became the second Golden Ram to record a hat trick this season as she helped lead the West Chester University women's soccer team (10-5-1, 9-5-1) to an important 4-1 victory over Millersville (6-5-5, 5-5-5) in PSAC East play on Wednesday night.
With tonight's victory, West Chester punched its ticket to the PSAC Tournament tonight and earned the No. 2 seed in the PSAC Tournament by virtue of a 3-0 Kutztown loss at the hands of East Stroudsburg in its regular-season finale. West Chester will host a PSAC Quarterfinal on Rockwell Field on Tuesday, November 12, at 1 p.m. against either Kutztown or Bloomsburg, depending on the results of the Bloomsburg/Shippensburg game on Saturday afternoon.
With a victory over Shippensburg, Bloomsburg could move into a tie for second with West Chester, depending on the results of the Golden Rams matchup vs Shepherd. However, the Golden Rams hold a goal differential tiebreaker over the Huskies after a 3-0 victory on Rockwell earlier this season. Should Bloomsburg play to a draw or worse against Shippensburg, Kutztown will hold on to become the two seed and return to Rockwell Field for the Quarterfinals on Tuesday afternoon.
Alyson Cutter (Warrington, Pa./C.B. South) gave West Chester an early lead just over five minutes into the match when she finished off a Golden Ram counterattack with her league-leading 13
th goal of the season.
Matter scored her first of three goals on the night in the 21
st minute and scored her second just over 15 minutes later off an assist from Cutter as the Golden Rams carried a 3-0 lead into the halftime break.
West Chester ended the first half with a 6-4 lead in shots and a 5-2 lead in shots on goal while also ending the half with a 1-0 lead in corners.
Hannah Blackman cut into the West Chester lead just under four minutes into the second half off an assist from Kylie Marandola to make the score 3-1 early in the second half.
Matter became the second Golden Ram to record a hat trick this season with her third goal of the night in the 69
th minute, which extended the lead to 4-1 entering the final 20 minutes of the match.
West Chester ended the game with a 14-13 lead in shots, although shots on goal were even at 8-8. It also ended the match with a 6-4 lead in corners.
Up Next:
West Chester is back in action on Saturday for its regular-season finale against Shepherd beginning at 1 p.m.
