The Slippery Rock University women’s soccer team (1-1-1) earned their first win of the season by a score of 1-0 over California University of Pennsylvania (2-1-1) on Wednesday.
Sophomore forward Dara Demich scored the Rock’s first goal of the season in the 87th minute off of a corner kick assist from junior midfielder Caitlin Binder. This is the fifth consecutive win for SRU over California, including beating them twice a season ago, where one of those was a 3-0 victory in the NCAA Atlantic Regional Championship game. Since 2010, California is 45-4-4 at home, with three of those losses coming from SRU.
The Green and White’s defense and goal-tending paved the way to another shutout against a California team that has scored eight goals over its first three games.
Sophomore goalkeeper Annabelle Hegeman had one save in the game.
SRU ended the night with an 11-8 advantage in total shots attempted, including seven shots on target, and four shots off target. California had one shot on target and seven shots off target.
Sophomore forward Sam Thornton had four shots on goal, while junior midfielder Brooke Edwards and senior midfielder Leslie Henny both had two shots on goal. Demich, junior midfielder Allison Harbart, and freshman midfielder Tess Keeley each had one shot on goal.
The Rock tied Shippensburg University on Saturday. where the game ended in a 0-0 tie. SRU head coach Noreen Herlihy said that it was good to see the Rock play clean soccer in the goals against column, and that they were more disciplined defensively. In terms of negativity, Herlihy said that they need to start burying goals instead of just getting opportunities. SRU had 10 shots on goal in this game.
“I’d be more concerned if we weren’t creating those opportunities,” Herlihy said. “Now we just need to finish them.”
In this game, Hegeman made 11 saves on the way to her third career shutout. Sophomore forward Sam Thorton was the biggest offensive threat for the Rock, recording five shots on goal.
SRU out-shot Shippensburg with 18-17 total shots attempted. The Rock had 11 shots on target and seven shots off target. Shippensburg had 10 shots on target and seven shots off target.
Senior forward Nicole Krueger said the team chemistry is good, and everyone gets along, and that they are just trying to get over having a lot of injuries and youth on the team.
“The team needs to stay true to the integrity of how the game should be played and coached,” Herlihy said.
Slippery Rock host Davis & Elkins Sat. at 1 p.m. at James Egli Field.
