Box Score Abington, Pa. - The Penn State Abington soccer squad fell in agonizing fashion earlier this evening at the hands of SUNYIT in their quartefinal matchup of the 2012 NEAC Championship Tournament. The Lady Lions managed to wrangle an early lead from the visiting Wildcats, before eventually falling by a tally of two to four in penalty kicks.

From the beginning, it was readily apparent that this would be a game of vast momentum shifts, with the Wildcats (10-9-1, 8-4-1 NEAC) being in control of it early on. In the opening twenty minutes of play, Abington was forced to spend the majority of time defending their own goal. The Lady Lions defenses were more than up to the challenge, however, with sophomore goalkeeper Gabrielle Benedict making two saves and defenders getting two more blocks. The Wildcats were able to get the first six shots on goal, but were unable to sneak anything past Benedict. They would pay for their inabilty to convert just past the twenty minute mark.

With the ball bouncing around in the midfield, and the Lady Lions forwards pressing to retrieve possession, the Wildcats defense sent the ball back towards their own goalkeeper to relieve the pressure. Junior goalkeeper Aubrey Campbell came well outside of the penalty box to meet the ball, directly in the middle of her own half. Penn State Abington junior Alyssa Kaye chased the ball back to put pressure on Campbell's clearance attempt, and in fact managed to get her body directly in the way of Campbell's kick. The ball bounded straight backwards, high in the air back past Campbell and towards the center of the Wildcats' goal. With Kaye's momentum already taking her in that direction, she was easily able to beat Campbell back towards the ball, reaching the ball around 10 yards out and finishing into the middle of the empty net.

With the 1-0 lead, surely Penn State Abington (11-6-2, 8-3-2 NEAC) would firm up their defenses and try to make that lead stand up as long as possible. Unfortunately in this case, "as long as possible" only ended up being a mere 35 seconds. Almost immediately off of the restart in play, SUNYIT was able to get the ball in the attacking half. Somehow, a loose ball snuck directly in between the two Lady Lions central defenders, leaving a wide open path for any SUNYIT player who could run onto the ball. In this case, that ended up being junior Dakota Hanley, who ran onto the loose ball around 25 yards out and got a one-on-one opportunity against Benedict. The sophomore goalkeeper did her best to stop the chance, racing off her line to cut down the angle, but it was to no avail. Hanley simply chipped the shot over Benedict and into the netting, immediately tying the game back up at 1-1.

From this point out, it seemed as if the game would explode into a high scoring affair. Little time was spent with the ball in the midfield; each team simply attacked as long as they possibly could, until the other side managed to clear the ball out and start an attack of their own. This is born out in the statistics. Both teams made it into the double digits in shots and shots on target. Only by the incredibly strong play of each goaltender did the score stay level throughout the rest of the match. Benedict came up with several sprawling saves, diving to her left or right to stop very tough shots. Campbell was no slouch either, stopping several Lady Lions breakaways by coming off the line to clear the ball out of play, and managing to dive on a loose ball in the goal box off of a corner kick.

As each team headed to the first overtime, it seemed like just a matter of time before Abington would break through with the game-winning goal.with the best chance for the Lady Lions coming in the 99th minute. Freshman Cindy Wade got a partial breakaway in on goal after dribbling through the defense along the left side of the endline. Wade dribbled into the penalty box and took a sharp angle shot, aiming for the far post. Campbell was able to diver to her left and parry the ball away, but it went directly towards the penalty spot and a waiting Sam Whalen. The crowd leapt to its feet, seeing the now wide open net and sensing the opportunity Whalen had, but it simply was not to be. At the very last second, a Wildcats defender raced in front of Whalen just as she was shooting, sending the all skittering harmlessly away. Ulitmately, this was the last best chance either side had in the overtime periods, and the two teams entered the penalty kick phase of the game.

The Wildcats had the first opportunity from the penalty spot and ripped a goal into the net past Benedict. Looking for an answer, the Lady Lions turned to Whalen once again, but she was unable to convert. After another conversion from SUNYIT, it was Wade who got Penn State Abington on the board, making the tally 2-1 after two kicks each. The Lady Lions got exactly what they needed on SUNYIT's next kick, a big time save from Benedict, who ended the evening with 15 saves total. With a chance to swing the momentum back to the home team, Brittany Palmer stepped up to the spot. Unfortunately, Palmer's kick was sent just over the crossbar. From here on out, each team converted on every remaining opportunity, with senior defender Veronica Metz netting the game-winning final penalty kick for the Wildcats.

The heartbreaking loss closes this chapter of the season for the Lady Lions. In what has been a year of numerous ups and downs at Abington, the Lady Lions now look forward to the possiblity of participating in ECAC postseason play. The school will not know the ECAC draw until after the NCAA field is finalized, but for now be sure to keep checking in here at abingtonsports.com for any updates and news on your Penn State Abington women's soccer squad.