Box Score SCRANTON, Pa. – Senior Steph Lowrey (Bridgewater, N.J./Bridgewater-Raritan) scored the lone goal of the match in the 83rd minute and The University of Scranton women's soccer team (18-0-1) topped the SUNY Geneseo Knights (16-3-1) 1-0 in NCAA Tournament Second Round action on Sunday afternoon at Weiss Field in Scranton.
With the win, the Royals are headed to the Sweet 16 and have advanced past the second round for the first time since 2003 and the third time in program history.
Scranton will take on TCNJ in Sweet 16 action next weekend at a site and time to be determined. The Lions were 2-1 winners over Messiah on Sunday.
The Royals had a number of quality chances throughout the match and finally broke through with Lowrey's eventual game-winner as the senior took a feed from sophomore Claire Mulholland (Marlton, N.J./Cherokee) and beat Geneseo keeper Angel Bennett with a shot to the near post for a 1-0 lead.
"It's super special for us to accomplish [making the Sweet 16] especially as a senior. It has been a goal for us all season long so to actually see it happen is really amazing for us," senior Grace Elliott (Westfield, N.J./Westfield) said.
Protecting the one goal edge, Scranton held Geneseo without a shot in the final seven plus minutes to preserve their 16th shutout of the season.
"We felt really confident one would go in, we were getting a lot of chances and we knew one was going to go in the back of the net," said head coach Colleen Pivirotto following the match.
Bennett kept the Knights in the game from the outset as she registered four saves in the first five plus minutes of the game. The Royals nearly took the lead in the 27th minute as senior Elliott's shot was cleared off the line by a Knights defender to keep things scoreless for the time being. It was senior Amanda Steinberg's (Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Sachem North) turn to make a save for Scranton a couple minutes later as she denied Liv Raucci.
The second half was more of the same as the Royals continued to mount the pressure offensively and junior Teresa Hegarty (Bryn Mawr, Pa./Merion Mercy Academy) saw a shot ring off the crossbar in the 51st minute before Bennett added a pair of saves in the ensuing minutes. Steinberg added two more saves of her own in the 63rd and 70th minutes, while Bennett denied a quality chance from Elliott in the 80th minute as things remained scoreless prior to Lowrey's goal.
Scranton held a 19-4 shot advantage in the contest paced by four from Elliott and three apiece from Mulholland and classmate Niamh Healy (Orangeburg, N.Y./Tappan Zee).
Steinberg registered three saves for the clean sheet and Bennett made seven saves in the setback for the Knights.
Stay tuned to athletics.scranton.edu for more information on next weekend's Sweet 16 as it becomes available.
--ROYALS--
