College Cup loss could be building block for future success

The Penn State women’s soccer team defeated Duke, 1-0, en route to its first-ever National Championship this afternoon (Dec. 6) at WakeMed Soccer Park.

PSU (21-3-2), which reached the 2012 final, has outscored opponents, 19-0, in the tournament and improved its shutout streaks to seven games and 643 consecutive minutes with its 14th shutout of the season.

The Knights won the first meeting between the Big Ten rivals on October 18 in Piscataway, 1-0. “To go out on this note and be the first team to win a national championship and be that senior class that’s led them, it’s indescribable”. Duke was awarded a corner kick in the game’s closing seconds but could not put the ball in play before time expired.

The all-tournament team was littered with Nittany Lions and Blue Devils.

“Any time you have a guy of that caliber that can get the ball inside the middle of the zone, more times than not you’ll have success”, said Rob Murphy, Eastern Michigan head coach. Leaning on their defenses, the teams exchanged possessions and half-chances to start the first half – neither side finding a shot in the first 23 minutes. “It may have been played back to me, but we reacted late and she was able to get the shot off”.

“I feel like these girls are champions in their own right”, Church said.

That last number is very impressive, but also not exactly ideal for Penn State moving forward. Those totals (especially the 3-point shooting) will likely drop as the season progresses, but Garner’s progress is encouraging.

Shots were even at two apiece heading into halftime, but Penn State seemed to be in control of the game and carried their momentum into the second half. Penn State fell to North Carolina 4-1 in the final that year. “This in an individual lesson that you have to learn from this game, that you can’t let that happen again”. Gibbons is Duke’s fifth-leading scorer with three goals and six assists, and is the leader on a defense that has allowed only four goals in its last 11 matches.

A BC employee said that both teams and the officials were told of the problem, but they agreed to play the game with the lighting conditions.

“The strength of this team all season long has been the depth, and we are really proud of the players coming off the bench and strength of this 26-man roster”, Walsh said.

Sometime during the intermission between the second and third games, Penn State coach Russ Rose flipped the switch to return the Nittany Lions to their form from the first game. “The idea for us was to attack them on the flanks and try to utilize the space behind their outside backs because we knew their outside backs were going to press up on our forwards”, O’Neill said. Rodrigruez was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Offensive Player and Proctor was named the Most Outstanding Defensive Player.