PLYMOUTH, N.H. - Freshman Alex
Marcell (Pittsford, Vt.) scored two second-half goals
Saturday afternoon to lift the Plymouth State University women's
soccer team to a 2-0 victory over the University of Massachusetts
Dartmouth in a key Little East Conference game at Panther Field.
The victory pushes Plymouth State (6-8-0 overall, 2-4-0 in the LEC)
past UMD (4-9-2 overall, 1-4-1 in the LEC) in the conference
standings and into a tie for fifth place with Southern Maine, while
the Corsairs fall to seventh place. One week remains in the
regular season, and the top six teams in the regular season advance
to the LEC Tournament.
It was a scoreless first half, with UMD out-shooting the home team
6-3, but the Panthers had the best scoring opportunity just before
the break. Marcell served a crossing pass into the box and
junior Nicole Bedard (Windham, N.H./Alvirne) got
her head on it, but her strong shot bounced off the cross bar.
PSU nearly scored again early in the second half when sophomore
Lauren Lavery (Nashua, N.H.) split three
defenders, but her shot also clanged the cross bar.
Marcell finally broke the scoreless deadlock with 16 minutes
remaining in the second half with she took a through pass from
sophomore Jen Mooney (Whitman, Mass.) and fired a
shot from the left side outside the box, through the goalie's hands
and into the net for a 1-0 Panther lead. A little over 10 minutes
later, Marcell hit a shot from nearly the same spot, and again
through the keeper's hands and into the net for a Panther insurance
goal.
Senior keeper Ashley Riberdy (Manchester,
N.H./Memorial) was solid in the Panther goal, and made six saves to
earn second shutout of the season. Freshman Tanya Braga
(Hudson, Mass.) finished with three saves in the Corsair net.
PSU wraps up the regular season with a non-conference game at
Lyndon State on Tuesday (3:00 p.m.) and an LEC home game next
Saturday vs. UMass Boston (4:00 p.m.). UMD hosts Worcester
State on Tuesday (3:30 p.m.), visits Newbury on Thursday (3:00
p.m.) and travels to Eastern Connecticut to conclude the regular
season next Saturday (1:00 p.m.)
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