November 5, 2007
Wolverines earn top seed in ECAC Tournament
GROVE CITY, Pa. -- The Grove City College women's soccer team is the top seed in this week's eight-team Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III Southern Championship Tournament. Grove City (15-3-1) will host No. 8 seed Juniata (9-5-3) Wednesday afternoon at 2 p.m. in the quarterfinal round at College Field.
Grove City is making its first postseason appearance since advancing to the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament in 2003. Wednesday's match will be the program's first-ever home postseason event.
Grove City's 15-2-1 record in the regular season is the best in program history. The Wolverines went 5-2 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference, good for third in the league. Juniata finished fourth in the newly-created Landmark Conference with a 2-2-2 league record. The Eagles fell to Scranton in the Landmark Conference Championship Tournament semifinals Oct. 31, 3-2.
The teams have just one common opponent this season. Grove City picked up a 10-3 victory at Chatham Oct. 13. Juniata won at Chatham Sept. 13, 4-1.
Grove City features just two seniors in its starting lineup -- midfielder Bethany Peck (Abingdon, Md./Bel Air) and outside back Alix Flowers (Forest, Va./New Covenant). Freshman forward Emily Ostlund (Minnetonka, Minn./Hopkins) leads Grove City with 15 goals and 31 total points this season. Junior Stephanie Wild (Carmel, Ind./Heritage Christian) has 11 goals and five assists this season, ranking second on the squad in both categories. Sophomore Elise Bender (Alexandria, Va./West Potomac) leads the team with six assists.
Defensively, junior goalkeepers Diana Pragel (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Arcadia) and Bethany Preston (Elma, N.Y./Iroquois) have combined for 11 shutouts and an 0.78 goals-against average this season. Preston is 9-2-1 this year while Pragel is 6-1.
Like Grove City, Juniata is led in scoring by a freshman. Freshman forward Caitlin Bigelow leads the Eagles with eight goals and seven assists this year. Sophomore Sarah Ruggiero has eight goals this year for Juniata. Senior goalkeeper Lisa Russo has six shutouts and a 1.00 GAA this season.
If Grove City defeats Juniata Wednesday, the Wolverines would host both the semifinal and final round this weekend at College Field. The winner of the Grove City-Juniata match will play either No. 4 Widener or No. 5 Catholic in Saturday's semifinals. The other half of the bracket features No. 2 Frostburg State hosting No. 7 Carnegie Mellon and third-seeded Swarthmore hosting No. 6 Misericordia.
The semifinal winners will meet Sunday for the championship. If held at College Field, Saturday's semifinals would be held at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., respectively. Should Grove City host the title match, it is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon at College Field.
Go back to Wolverine Soccer Home Page