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Oct. 12, 2007
Liz Martini scored two goals and added two assists to lead IUP to a 4-1 victory over visiting Slippery Rock and moved the Crimson Hawks to within one win of its first PSAC regular season title. IUP, the top ranked team in Division II, won its eighth in a row to improve to 14-2 overall and 11-1 in the PSAC. Slippery Rock, which ended a 29-game losing streak with a win over Millersville in its last game, is 1-15 and 1-11 in the conference. IUP needs to win either at Millersville on Wednesday or at Shippensburg on Saturday to earn the top seed in the PSAC playoffs and the right to host the conference tournament on October 26-27. Bloomsburg and Kutztown have also clinched PSAC tournament berths and trailed IUP by one game in the loss column, but the Crimson Hawks own the tiebreaker by winning three of four games against those two schools. Mansfield is currently holding down the fourth and final playoff spot with a two-game lead over Shippensburg heading into the final week of regular season play. Against Slippery Rock, IUP broke a scoreless tie with 22:26 gone in the first half when Barbara Heemelaar scored on a penalty corner assist by Martini. Martini then scored the next two goals, her 13th and 14th of the season, to build the lead to 3-0. The Rock got on the scoreboard with 26:18 remaining on a goal by Lindsay Bisking, but IUP answered with 7:24 left on a tally by Jessica Velgos. The Crimson Hawks held a huge statistical advantage, outshooting Slippery Rock 22-5 and taking 17 penalty corners to only two for The Rock. Lydia Dolly made three saves for IUP, and Lisa Belcastro had eight saves for Slippery Rock. |
