Sarah Fails sprints downfield ahead of two Kutztown defenders.
Sam Young
1
Winner Kutztown KUT (11-5-4, 8-4-4)
0
Gannon GAN (15-4-4, 11-1-4)
Winner
Kutztown KUT
(11-5-4, 8-4-4)
1
Final
0
Gannon GAN
(15-4-4, 11-1-4)
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Kutztown KUT 0 1 1
Gannon GAN 0 0 0

Game Recap: Women's Soccer | | Bob Shreve, Assistant Director of Athletics Media Relations

Gannon Season Comes to End with 1-0 Loss to Kutztown in Atlantic Regional Semifinals

ERIE, Pa. – The Gannon women's soccer team saw its season come to an end on a cold and bitter Sunday afternoon at McConnell Family Stadium. Kutztown was able to take advantage of an early second-half goal and hand the Golden Knights a 1-0 defeat in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional semifinals.

Gannon came in as the number three seed while Kutztown was the seventh seed. Both teams won by 3-0 scores in the rain on Friday, Gannon over sixth-seeded Fairmont State and Kutztown upsetting second-seeded Frostburg State. The Golden Knights finish the year with a 15-4-4 record while Kutztown is 11-5-4 and moves on to play at top-seeded West Chester in the Atlantic Regional championship game. 

Head coach Colin Petersen's squad reached the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year. The 15 wins are the second-highest season total, bettered only by an 18-3-0 finish in 2015.

The teams dealt with heavy rain on Friday, forcing the second-round games to be moved to Penn State Behrend. On Sunday it was snow and a strong wind blowing from one end of the field to the other that greeted the teams.

Kutztown had the wind in the first half and in an evenly-played 45 minutes, Gannon held the Golden Bears off the scoreboard. The first half saw just five shots, three by Kutztown and two by Gannon.

Despite going into the wind, the Golden Bears were able to score the lone goal of the game early in the second half. Caroline McDonald took a beautiful lead pass and had a step on a pair of Gannon defenders. She was bumped off her feet just outside the top of the 18-yard box. Lexy Endres took the ensuing free kick and was able to blast a low shot just outside the Gannon wall, eluding goalkeeper Kennedy Solymosi (Eastlake, Ohio/Lake Catholic), who was diving to her right. The goal came at the 50:20 mark.

The Golden Bears were back in attack mode almost immediately with a corner. The results would impact Gannon the rest of the match. During a scramble in front of the net the Golden Knights were given a red card and forced to play a man down for the final 32 minutes.

Gannon challenged Kutztown goalkeeper Emme Wolfel several times in the remaining minutes. The most serious threat came in the 74th minute. Leading scorer Sarah fails worked her way for a clean shot from the right side. Her high blast was just tipped by Wolfel and then hit the crossbar. It rebounded to Sam Dales and Wolfel knocked away her shot. A third Gannon shot was blocked by a defender.

Both team finished with 10 shots, with Gannon registering six shots on goal and Kutztown five. In her final match, Solymosi finished with four saves while Wolfel had six.  
 
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