READING, PA (September 26, 2010) - The Penn State Berks women's soccer team was unable to overcome a first half goal in its 1-0 loss to SUNY Institute of Technology on Sunday afternoon.
Both teams entered with the only perfect records in the conference heading into the highly anticipated battle. The Wildcats now stand atop the NEAC standings with 5-0 record, while Berks is tied with Cazenovia at 3-1.
The only goal of the match came at the 9:22 mark of the first half. Lauryne Zinter inserted a corner kick with the Nittany Lions clearing it and the ball rolled along the baseline. Zinter kept it alive by kicking toward the box and Abbey Hanehan deflected it into the net past a slew of Berks defenders.
Cassidy Dawson, coming off of a shutout on Saturday, had another strong performance in net for the Lions. Dawson made three saves and stopped several other attacks. In the first half she came out of net to stop a cross and was knocked to the ground by the offender. In four of the past five matches, Dawson has only one goal or less to lower her goals against average to 1.81.
In addition to the strong physical play of the Wildcats, lady luck was also against the Nittany Lions. ALYSSA SCHEIDT and TAYLOR KREIDER worked a two-on-one attack at 15:39 of the first half. After passing the defense, Scheidt unleashed a shot that went past the keeper and ripped off the right post.
With 4:08 left in the contest, ARI FUENTES inserted a corner that ALEX VOLOVAR headed, which took a leaping save by the keeper. The duo tried the same game plan with 15 seconds left, but again the ball was unable to find the back of the net.
Penn State Berks will travel to Alvernia University for a 7 p.m. nonconference contest on Wednesday.
