With the conclusion of the PSAC Soccer Tournaments this weekend taking place at Rockwell Field in West Chester, both the Men’s and Women’s sides unfortunately fell short of their conference title hopes. The top-ranked Golden Rams Women’s team (16-3-1) were able to advance to the title game where they lost a thrilling match to the number three seeded East Stroudsburg (15-3-3) in a 0-1 game. The number one seeded WCU men’s side (13-3-1) eventually lost in penalty kicks to the East Stroudsburg’s men’s team (14-3-1) in a semifinal match-up.
After defeating Bloomsburg University (8-6-3) 1-0 and Gannon University (13-4-2) 2-1 earlier in the week in their quarterfinal and semifinal match-ups respectively, the West Chester women’s team’s title aspirations were cut short in the 76th minute goal on a deflection in front of the goal off a shot from East Stoudsburg’s Haley Skove in Saturday’s PSAC finals game.
Despite leading 13-8 in shots and 7-6 in shots on goal, the Rams were unable to get anything past the eventual tournament MVP Jules Harris in goal, including two point blank shots from junior forward, Linzi Wolfe. Making a crucial save in the 20th minute with a diving play, senior goalkeeper, McKenna Mullin, was able to keep the Rams in the game recording five saves of her own.
Sophomore midfielder, Jenny Bail, lead the charge for the Rams putting three shots on goal, while junior defender, Julia Kirkpatrick and Wolfe were able to put two shots on goal themselves. Although WCU out-shot East Stroudsburg by five shots, they were unable to find the back of the net on any of their attempts. This left the Rams scoreless for only the third time all season in route to the upsetting finals loss.
The men’s side on the other hand, were unable to even reach Sunday’s championship game despite coming into the end of season tournament with the number one seed and a quarterfinal bye. Playing against the men’s East Stroudsburg squad, the quarterfinal match-up played to a scoreless draw through two overtime periods and came down to penalty kicks, where the Rams fell short, 5-4.
Playing the entirety of the game including penalty kicks, senior Rams goalkeeper, Matt Palmer, was able to get the regular time and overtime shutout making four saves on the day to give West Chester an opportunity to win it in penalty kicks after 110 minutes of play. Though West Chester was able to get off more shots than East Stroudsburg with a 12 to 11 mark, the Warriors were able to put four on goal compared to WCU’s three.
Tied at 4-4 in penalty kicks, freshman midfielder, Stephen Thompson, had a chance to extend the shootout with the final shot of penalty kicks but was denied with a Robak save, thus ending the game.
With both men’s and women’s soccer teams having excellent regular seasons for WCU, they may have a chance to play in their respective NCAA D2 tournaments, with the brackets set to be announced Monday.
Max Randolph is fourth-year student majoring in English with a minor in journalism. He can be reached at MR829829@wcupa.edu.