Hoboken, N.J. – The Stevens Institute of Technology women's soccer team blanked Misericordia University 3-0 in the regular-season finale to clinch the No. 1 seed in next week's Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom Championship Tournament.
Alina Friz,
Alana Odom and
Molly McCann scored for Stevens (9-5-3, 8-0-0 MAC Freedom), which ran its unbeaten streak to nine.
HOW IT HAPPENED
First-year goalkeeper
Lucy Smith was pressed into action early Saturday, making two stops in the first three minutes. On the second, Smith caught a bouncing shot that nearly crossed the goal line after ricocheting off the crossbar. The assistant referee ruled no goal, and 18 seconds later, Stevens capitalized on the counterattack. Smith sent a ball near midfield, and Friz tapped a pass to Odom. Odom turned, took a touch and threaded a feed back to Friz, who danced around a defender and fired a low shot past a diving Patrissi for a 1-0 lead.
Stevens nearly doubled the margin less than two minutes later, but Odom had her attempt stopped by Misericordia goalkeeper Marisa Patrissi.
Kaitlyn Pettit followed with another shot on goal in the sixth minute before Patrissi denied Odom again at 16:15. The Cougars applied pressure throughout the remainder of the opening half, earning eight corner kicks and registering nine shots over the opening 45 minutes. Smith turned away two more shots in the final 10 minutes to send the Ducks into halftime with a 1-0 advantage.
Stevens added to its lead less than 10 minutes into the second half. After Smith made a save in the 54th minute, the Ducks quickly went the other way.
Sophia Murphy corralled a loose ball in the middle of the park before beating a defender and sending a long pass down the left flank.
Hannah Casale ran down the feed and drove a high pass into the box, where Odom got a foot on it,and banked it in off a defender to double the Stevens advantage.
The Cougars earned a penalty kick in the 63rd minute, but the attempt went off the right post to keep the score at 2-0. The Ducks were awarded a penalty kick in the 78th minute after Murphy was taken down in the box. McCann stepped up and buried the try, stretching the lead to 3-0. The Stevens defense held Misericordia without a shot on goal over the final 36 minutes, getting in front of multiple attempts to preserve the clean sheet.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- The Ducks snapped Misericordia's 50-game conference regular-season winning streak, which dated back to Oct. 5, 2019, when Stevens notched a 1-0 victory on Julia Panko's 88th-minute tally.
- After going 11 games without a point, Odom has erupted for 19 points on eight goals and three assists over her last five games.
- Smith was stellar once again, turning away a season-high five shots.
UP NEXT
The Ducks will host a MAC Freedom semifinal Wednesday night at the DeBaun Athletic Complex, battling either No. 4 DeSales University or No. 5 Arcadia University at 7 p.m. DeSales and Arcadia will meet in the MAC Freedom Play-In Game Monday.
