2014 PSAC Women's Soccer Championship page  l  Live Stats

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EAST STROUDSBURG - East Stroudsburg University will look for its fourth trip to the PSAC semifinals in eight seasons under head coach Rob Berkowitz when the Warriors (17-1, 15-1), the PSAC regular season champions, host IUP in a PSAC quarterfinal game on Tuesday at 1 p.m. at Eiler-Martin Stadium.
 
ESU - picked eighth in the PSAC preseason poll - won its first-ever PSAC regular season title with a pair of 1-0 wins last weekend, in double-overtime against defending NCAA DII Atlantic Region champion Slippery Rock and in regulation against defending PSAC champion California. (recap vs. California)
 
After 17 straight wins, the Warriors enter an eight-team tournament looking to advance through three games for the third PSAC Tournament title in school history. ESU won the first-ever PSAC women's soccer championship in 1994 and added a second crown in 1997.

The Warriors are ranked No. 3 in last week's NSCAA DII coaches poll, the highest ranking in school history.
 
The top advancing seed after the quarterfinal round will host the PSAC semifinals and finals on Friday and Saturday.

In the other quarterfinal match-ups, No. 2 seed West Chester (15-1-1, 14-1-1) hosts No. 7 Gannon (9-8, 9-7), No. 3 Kutztown (13-4, 12-4) hosts No. 6 Edinboro (10-6-2, 9-5-2) and No. 4 California (11-3-4, 10-3-3) hosts No. 5 Slippery Rock (11-5-1, 10-5-1).

California (2013, 2011), Slippery Rock (2012) and West Chester (2010, 2009) are the most recent PSAC champions.
 
ESU has advanced to the semifinals three times under Berkowitz - his first two years in 2007 and 2008, and most recently 2012. Four players - seniors Kelly Clark, Courtney Keller and Lexie Peveraro and junior Sammi Jo Hughes - were starters on the 2012 team.
 
ESU's 17-game winning streak is the second-longest in PSAC history behind a 23-game winning streak by West Chester in 2006. The Warriors have won every game since a 1-0 loss to Kutztown in their season opener on September 4.
 
The Warriors posted a 3-0 win over IUP in their first meeting on October 11 at Eiler-Martin Stadium, the 10th victory in their 17-game winning streak.
 
Sophomore midfielder Shea Neal scored all three goals in the second half, coming in the 60th, 84th and 86th minutes.

Neal was ESU's only returning All-PSAC player entering 2014, earning first team All-PSAC honors as a freshman after leading the Warriors with six goals and three assists.
 
ESU returned eight starters but lost two multiple-time All-PSAC selections in three-time all-conference center back Michelle Gogolen and two-time all-conference goalkeeper Brittain Wagner, along with forward Kerri McClay.
 
Berkowitz has put together a team that has incorporated three seniors, two juniors, three sophomores and three freshman in its usual starting lineup - a squad that has eight players who have made at least 30 career starts.
 
ESU leads the PSAC in both goals (2.61 gpg) and goals against (0.50 gaa), with 47 goals and just nine goals against in 18 games.

The Warriors have allowed more than one goal just once (3-2 win at Millersville on Oct. 14) and have given up just one goal in six games since then. ESU will take a streak of 380:53 without allowing a goal into Tuesday's quarterfinal game.
 
Freshman goalkeeper Jules Harris has started 15 games and leads the PSAC in both goals against average (0.47) and save percentage (0.892) entering the postseason. She has allowed just seven goals in 1,331 minutes and has eight total shutouts (seven solo).

Offensively, ESU leads the PSAC in goals without a player in the top 10 in the PSAC in goals or points per game.
 
Freshman right back Amanda Vojta has been one of the Warriors' top offensive threats, leading the PSAC with 0.78 assists per game (14 in 18 games) while adding one goal. Her 14 assists are an ESU freshman record and tied for the second-most in school history, with 11 coming off corner kicks while also scoring on a corner at Millersville.
 
Five Warriors have scored at least five goals, and four share team scoring honors with six goals - senior forward Courtney Keller, sophomore forward Brielyn Hackett, sophomore midfielder Shea Neal and sophomore back Laurel Neira. Junior forward Sammi Jo Hughes has added five goals.
 
Four different players have scored ESU's four game-winning overtime goals, tied for a school record set in 1998 - Neira vs. Bloomsburg (W 2-1, Sept. 24), Hackett at West Chester (W 2-1, Sept. 30), Hughes vs. Shippensburg (W 1-0, Oct. 18) and Neal vs. Slippery Rock (W 1-0, Oct. 31).

Ten of ESU's 17 wins have come by one goal, and the game-winning goal has come in the 70th minute or later in eight of those victories.
 
Senior left back Lexie Peveraro leads active Warriors with 72 career starts and was one of three returning starters along the back line. Neira (33 career starts) is in her second year as a starter at center back, with senior Kelly Clark (47 starts) moving inside, replacing Gogolen, after starting the last two years at right back.

Vojta has started all 18 games - mostly at right back, but moving to center back when Clark missed several games due to injury, ESU's only significant injury this season.
 
In the midfield, all three starters have been in the lineup for 18 games - Neal (six goals, two assists), junior Syrandin Deere Vester (35 career starts) and freshman Sammi Ortiz.

Several players have contributed at forward with Keller (6G, 3A), Hughes (5G, 3A) and sophomore Hannah Gombos (3G, 1A) the regular starters and Hackett (6G, 3A) and freshman Molly Vicari (3 assists) leading the substitutes. Gombos moved from forward to right back when Clark was sidelined.

Three Warriors have scored 10+ career goals - Hughes (13), Neal (12) and Keller (11).
 
In goal, Harris has started 15 games with freshman Jess Hetrick (3 goals against, 2 shutouts in 321 minutes) making three starts.
 
ESU will play in the PSAC Tournament for the ninth time in the tournament's 21st season, and the fifth time in eight seasons under Berkowitz. The Warriors missed the tournament for eight straight years (1999-2006) before Berkowitz took over the program in 2007.
 
ESU is 2-1 in PSAC Tournament games at Eiler-Martin Stadium, winning 1-0 vs. Bloomsburg in the quarterfinals in 2007 and 3-2 (2OT) vs. Lock Haven in the semifinals in 1998, before falling 1-0 to Bloomsburg in the championship game - the most recent of the Warriors' three appearances in the final, all coming in the first five years of the tournament (1994, 1997, 1998).
 
Berkowitz, the 2007 PSAC East Coach of the Year, should be a leading contender for this year's award when it is released this week. He has a career record of 86-51-16 (.614) in eight seasons and has posted 10+ wins five times. This year's team is one win from tying the 1994 team (18-2) for the most victories in school history.

IUP (9-6-3, 8-6-2) is led by senior midfielder Brittney Kuhns, a two-time All-PSAC second team selection who ranks fifth in the PSAC in points per game (1.17) and is tied for second in the conference with nine goals while adding three assists.
 
The Crimson Hawks rank ninth of 17 schools in the conference in goals per game (1.67) and 11th in goals against (1.39), with 30 goals for and 25 goals against. Goalkeeper Jessica Printz is 10th in goals against average (1.20) and save percentage (.806).

IUP went 7-0-2 against non-playoff teams and 1-6 against schools that qualified for the PSAC Tournament, beating Slippery Rock (1-0) and falling to ESU (3-0), California (2-0), Edinboro (2-1), West Chester (2-1), Kutztown (3-1) and Gannon (7-1).

 
NOTES
* ESU improved its PSAC finish by 7 spots from its ranking in the preseason poll (picked 8th, finished 1st). That is the biggest improvement in 5 seasons that the PSAC has played a single-division format (since 2010).
 
* The last five PSAC regular season champions have been picked:
2010 - West Chester (1)
2011 - California (2)
2012 - California (1)
2013 - California (3)
2014 - ESU (8)