Box Score ABINGTON, Pa. - On Saturday afternoon the Penn State Abington Nittany Lions women's soccer team took on interstate rival Penn State Berks. Penn State Abington is coming off a 7-0 win against Notre Dame of Maryland University, while Penn State Berks lost a tough match against Rowan University with the final score being 6-1. Coming off a loss and playing against an interstate rival, Penn State Berks had all the motivation to win, and it clearly showed.

Less than three minutes into the start of the game Penn State Berks had an early 1-0 lead after their first goal was scored by Cristen French off an assist by Simone Stewart. Not much later in the 18^th minute Penn State Abington was called for a foul in the box and awarded a penalty kick to Berks. Dana Sarcinello capped off the penalty with Penn State Berks' second goal of game. Abington was able to keep the score at 2-0 going into half time with big saves by the goal keeper Alyssa Kaye.

Coming into the second half Penn State Abington came out stronger and put high pressure on Berks, but to no avail. In the 25^th minute of the second half Penn State Berks increased their lead to 3-0 after Taylor Swartz was able to recover a fumbled ball by the goal keeper and put it in an empty net. Although the score was against them at 3-0, Penn State Abington did not go down without a fight. Abington cut the lead to 3-1 after Kayla Nolan recovered a deflected ball by the goal keeper in the middle of the field and drilled it into the bottom left corner of the net. Even though Abington was fighting their way back into this game, the Blue and White squad gave up a late insurance goal.  Berks' Cristen French capped off her second goal of the game assisted by Simone Stewart, which was her second assist of the game.  French's initial shot was blocked but she recovered it and was able to put it past the goal keeper to make the score 4-1.

The result, 4-1, was unfortunately Penn State Abington's first conference loss of the season, stretching their record to 2-1 in the NEAC and putting Berks at 2-0. Penn State Abington's next game is next Saturday for another NEAC contest when the Nittany Lions hit the road and take on SUNY Cobleskill.