November 16, 2002

GENEVA, N.Y.—After 110 minutes of soccer and a shootout the William Smith soccer team emerged victorious over Nazareth College to advance to the regional finals in the 2002 NCAA Tournament. After two goals in the opening eight minutes of play, the Herons and Golden Flyers went scoreless for the next 102 minutes, ending regulation in a 1-1 tie, with William Smith winning the penalty kick shootout 4-3.

The Herons who improve to 15-3-3 took a 1-0 lead in the seventh minute when Alyson Stachura (Pittsford-Sutherland/Pittsford, N.Y.) received a diagonal pass from Maria Paoff (East Syracuse-Minoa/East Syracuse, N.Y.) and broke through the Nazareth defense to slide the ball past the Golden Flyers’ keeper. Just over a minute later Casey Corcoran (Greece Athena, Rochester, N.Y.) got in behind William Smith’s back line beating Leah Cornwell (Wheatland-Chili/Scottsville, N.Y.) with a shot into the left corner.

The rest of the game was played very evenly as both teams had a little trouble generating any offense. The Golden Flyers fired eight shots in the game, while William Smith got 10 shots off, including two in the second overtime. Deadlocked at the end of the 110 minutes, the coaches picked their 10 kickers to decide the outcome of the game.

In the penalty kick round William Smith took the early 1-0 lead after Nazareth forward Jaime Snyder (Allegany-Limestone/Allegany, N.Y.) was denied by Cornwell and Heron defender Amy Pendergast (East Syracuse-Minoa/East Syracuse, N.Y.) converted. William Smith would keep their one point lead trading scores the next three times.

On the final attempt by Nazareth, Laura Mallia (Amherst/Eggertsville, N.Y.) hit the ball high allowing Cornwell to get her hand on it and push it over the crossbar for the win.

Cornwell was solid in the regulation making three saves. She shined in the shootout making two saves on five penalty attempts, and netting a penalty kick of her own. Hatcher pulled in three saves in the 110 minutes as well.

The Herons will face the Violets of New York University in the NCAA Regional Finals on Nov. 17, at noon. The game’s play-by-play action can be tracked live on the internet at http://campus.hws.edu/livewsoc/xlive.htm.

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