Box Score York, Pa. – The St. Mary's College of Maryland women's soccer team wins 2-1 in overtime against the York College of Pennsylvania Spartans to conclude the regular season schedule on Tuesday afternoon.
This win boosts the Seahawks to 24 points and half-a-game ahead of Christopher Newport University (13-4-1, 7-1 CAC) for first place in the conference rankings. Christopher Newport plays Marymount (Va.) University tomorrow and if Christopher Newport earns the win, then they would be the No. 1 seed in the upcoming CAC Women's Soccer Championship Tournament and St. Mary's the No. 2 seed as CNU holds the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Regardless of whether St. Mary's finishes as the No. 1 or No. 2 seed, the Seahawks will receive a first-round bye and will host a semifinal matchup on Tuesday, November 3 in Seahawk Stadium. Game time and opponent to be determined.
The Seahawks (10-6, 8-1 CAC) took control of the first half against York (6-10, 4-5 CAC) having the advantage for most of the half. St. Mary's collected six shots for the half while the Spartans had two. Junior midfielder Claire Kostelnik (Los Angeles, Calif./Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy) capitalized on a shot in the 29th minute when she collected a ball that deflected off the Spartans' senior goalkeeper Kate Lutte (Catasauqua, Pa./Catasauqua). Kostelnik's goal gave the advantage to the Seahawks to end the first half of play.
The Spartans tried to take control early on in the 10th minute when first-year defender Alyssa Rankin (Joppa, Md./Edgewood) shot hard to the left side of the box; however, first-year goalkeeper Katie Flores (Towson, Md./Towson) defended her goal and punched the ball over the crossbar with a diving save.
With a 1-0 lead, the Seahawks worked to take the win from the Spartans. St. Mary's had a total of nine shots for the second half but struggled to find the net.
York took advantage and was able to tie up the game in the 60th minute of the game. Senior defender Chelsea McDowell (Cinnaminson, N.J./Cinnaminson) lobbed the ball over Flores and into the net. This goal would be the last in regulation play and sent the game into overtime.
Nevertheless, the Seahawks would come out striking quickly three minutes into overtime as senior forward Gillian Sawyer (Columbia, Md./Wilde Lake) received a pass from half field and got the breakaway that would lead her past the Spartan defenders.
Sawyer quickly shot to the left as Lutte came out to defend and netted her ninth career game-winning goal at 93:09, tying her for third all-time in game-winners. Sawyer's conference-leading 17th goal of the season also gave the Seahawks 10 wins for the first time since 2008 when St. Mary's captured the program's only CAC tournament title and first-ever NCAA Tournament berth.
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