The West Virginia women’s soccer team welcomed the No. 8 ranked Penn State Nittany Lions to Dick Dlesk Stadium this evening for a rematch of last year’s NCAA Tournament matchup.
The matchup started off in a back and forth battle with West Virginia’s Olivia Shertzer taking the first shot seven minutes into the game but was stopped by Penn State’s Katherine Asman.
The Nittany Lions struck first in the 15th minute after Payton Linnehan played a ball over the top for Olivia Borgen who outran the Mountaineers and sent the ball under the keeper to take a 1-0 lead.
The remainder of the first half was controlled by Penn State with the Mountaineers only having one shot on target the remainder of the half.
The second half was all West Virginia who eventually found the back of the net in the 52nd minute after Dilary Heredia-Beltran played a long ball from the Mountaineers side of the field for Taylor White who was able to control the ball and put it over the keepers head and into the back of the net to level the score at 1-1.
Chloe Adler nearly found the back of the net for the Mountaineers again shortly after but Asman tipped the ball off the crossbar and out of bounds for a Mountaineer corner kick.
In the 84th minute, heartbreak struck for the Mountaineers as Penn State’s Olivia Damico found Kaitlyn MacBean for what proved to be the game winning goal as the Nittany Lions took a 2-1 lead and held that score until the final whistle.
The Mountaineers next matchup will be in Morgantown against Duquesne on Sunday with kickoff set for 1:00.
