Box Score Oakford, Pa. - The experience of playing back-to-back games rarely occurs in the sport of soccer. The level of stamina and endurance required to be competitive in a single 90-minute match is astonishing enough, let alone trying to accomplish this feat on two days running. However, this is exactly the challenge the Penn State Abington women's soccer team faced earlier this evening, and they were more than up for the task, winning a hard-fought match against Cairn University by a score of 1-0.
 
The Lady Lions, coming off of a 3-1 victory yesterday against Rosemont College, turned right back around for their home opener tonight against their non-conference rivals. After falling behind early in that game, head coach David Castellanos' squad was looking to put some early pressure on their opponents, and pressure they did. The Lady Lions fired off eight shots in the opening 22 minutes of the first period, on their way to a total of eleven in the frame. The Highlanders' defense, however, showed equally well in the period, with several of their defenders managing to block shots and pressure the Lady Lions off the ball. In the end, each team went into the half still looking for their first goal.
 
The second half continued with more of the same for Penn State Abington. A large percentage of ball control and an inordinate amount of pressure on the ball allowed the Lady Lions to continue creating chances, and in the 53^rd minute, all that hard work finally paid off. Senior midfielder Kaitlin Kozole latched onto the ball just inside the opposing third of the field on the right side, and controlled it all the way towards the corner. Navigating around her defender, Kozole managed to get off a perfect cross to the center of the penalty box, and right to the waiting forehead of fellow senior Brittany Palmer, who had created just enough separation from her marker to allow her to launch into the air and meet the ball with no problem. Palmer launched a hard header straight past the keeper and directly into the top left corner of the goal mouth.
 
With the hard work finally paying off for the Lady Lions, they pushed the tempo in search of more goals. However, Cairn's defense stiffened once again, and in fact the Highlanders managed to create some opportunities of their own. At one point, sophomore goalkeeper Gabrielle Benedict had to come racing all the way out of her penalty box to beat a Cairn player to the ball who would've been in alone on goal. In the end, Benedict ended up with a single save on Cairn's lone shot on goal, but her collection of other loose balls and excellent distribution proved just as important on the evening for the Lady Lions.
 
At the end of the night, Penn State Abington was forced to be content with a single goal in the match. However, Coach Castellanos' squad is more than happy to come away from this difficult opening weekend with a 2-0 record in hand. They, like most other people, are looking forward to a short break this Labor Day weekend, and then are gearing right back up for their next match on Wednesday, September 5^th, on the road at Cabrini College. Game time is set for 4 p.m.