The Penn State women’s soccer team defeated Duke, 1-0, en route to its first-ever National Championship this afternoon (Dec. 6) at WakeMed Soccer Park.
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Rodriguez scored, off of a feed from Weber, when she blasted a left-footer from the left side of the penalty area into the lower right hand corner of the net. Banks, a sophomore forward, had 13 of his points in the second half, when the Nittany Lions (5-2) were 20 of 24 at the free-throw line and connected on 5 of 11 3-pointers.
The swarming Nittany Lion defense did not allow a shot on goal until the 74th minute, when Britt Eckerstrom made her lone save.
Rodriguez’ strike Sunday was her ninth career game-winning goal and will go down in Penn State women’s soccer history.
While they may not have been able to get revenge against Penn State, the Scarlet Knights were able to exorcise one of their demons in a quarterfinal matchup against Virginia.
Penn State has reeled off 10 straight wins since losing to Rutgers in October, knocking the Scarlet Knights out of the College Cup with a 2-0 win in the semifinals on Friday.
Unable to manage a single shot on target in the first half, the Knights were forced to open the game up in search of an equalizer.
“I have so much respect for how the players themselves handled so many things both on the field and off the field and how hard they worked and played as a team”, Church said.
Crouse took advantage of a mistake by Rutgers (19-4-3) in the midfield with a sliding right-footed goal on the first shot by either team. Only this time, just making it wasn’t going to be good enough. Eastern Michigan quickly took to settling for shots as they shot 9-for-28 in the first half.
“I think the guys are doing all the right things”, said Anastos. Joining those two on the all-tournament team was Duke’s Toni Payne, Kayla McCoy and Christina Gibbons and Penn State’s Weber, Frannie Crouse, Kaleigh Riehl and Emily Ogle.
The two-time defending national women’s volleyball champs handily won games 1, 3 and 4 in their 3-1 win over Dayton in Rec Hall.
Garner hit 8-of-12 3-point shots and finished with a career-high 30 points, carrying Penn State to 67-58 victory over Boston College Wednesday in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
“It’s frustrating because you think a lot of the game you’re playing pretty well, yet the score wouldn’t indicate that”, said Anastos.
Duke (14-6-5) outshot Penn State, 6-4, and Penn State led, 3-1, in shots on goal in the opening half.
Six matches, no goals.
Eckerstrom was left off despite her two College Cup shutouts and six NCAA clean sheets.
“When you play against a team like that, the details are so important”.
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“We know what to expect from Penn State”, head coach Tom Anastos said. Rodrigruez was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Offensive Player and Proctor was named the Most Outstanding Defensive Player.
