GENEVA, N.Y.—The William Smith College soccer team will host the Liberty League Women's Soccer Tournament semifinals and championship on
Boswell Field at David J Urick Stadium this weekend. The Herons earned the right to host by clinching their 12th consecutive Liberty League regular season championship.
Saturday's semifinals will feature the top-seeded Herons (12-3-0) hosting fourth-seeded St. Lawrence (10-2-4) at 4:30 p.m. The second semifinal is slated to start at 7 p.m. and will be between second-seeded Ithaca (13-2-2) and third seeded RIT (11-4-2). The advancing teams will meet at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 4 on Boswell Field in the championship match.
William Smith's semifinal will be broadcast live on
WHWS-FM (105.7). All three matches can be seen online through
HWS All-Access and through
Live Stats.
William Smith moved up one spot in both national polls this week. The Herons landed at No. 10 in the
United Soccer Coaches ranking and at No. 12 in the
D3soccer.com poll.
Both William Smith and Ithaca earned a bye straight to the semifinals, but the Saints and Tigers had to play their way into the weekend. SLU defeated sixth-seeded Skidmore 1-0 in the tournament's first round yesterday. Junior Samantha Allen made seven saves to earn the shutout and ensure classmate Megan Gannon's 46th minute goal stood up. RIT took a much more dramatic route to Geneva. The Tigers trailed fifth-seeded Vassar 2-0 as the match entered the 87th minute, but first-year Rebecca Hext and senior Marla Roberts scored back-to-back goals less than two minutes apart to tie the match and force overtime. Junior Abbey Saia scored 88 seconds into extra time to hand the Brewers a stunning 3-2 loss.
The Heron lineup features a trio of players with 12 or more points this season. Senior
Megan Barwick leads the way with seven goals and five assists for 19 points. Sophomores
Sheila McQuillen and
Julia Keogh have both contributed five goals and two assists for 12 points. Defensively, William Smith has allowed a league-low six goals this season. Senior goalie
Veronica Romines is 8-1 in nine starts with a 0.24 goals against average and a .909 save percentage.
St. Lawrence is led by sophomores Julia Mulhern and Katie Clemmer. Mulhern sports a team-high six goals, including four game winners, for 12 points while Clemmer is close behind with five goals and an assist for 11 points. Allen is 10-2-4 with a 0.43 GAA and a .920 save percentage.
The Saints and Herons wrapped up the regular season on Boswell Field on Saturday, Oct. 27 with William Smith netting a pair of first half goals on the way to a 2-0 victory. Saturday's match will be the 46th meeting between the sides in a series that started in 1980. The Herons lead the series 35-7-3, including a 20-2-1 record when playing in Geneva.
Ithaca heads to the Boz with the Liberty League's most prolific offense. The Bombers have scored a league-high 36 goals, four more than the Tigers, who are second in the conference in scoring. Ithaca's roster sports three players with 10 or more points. Sophomore Alex Epifani has recorded league-highs of nine goals and seven assists for 25 points. Junior Gabriella Mihale adds five goals and two assists and senior Shoshana Bedrosian has five goals. In goal, junior Sara Jakobsze is 11-0-2 with a 0.32 GAA and a .905 save percentage.
RIT is led by Roberts' eight goals and two assists for 18 points. Junior Mia White adds four goals and three assists for 11 points. Sophomore goalie Alyssa Salls has played the majority of minutes in goal, posting a 7-1-2 record with a 0.73 GAA and an .864 save percentage.
This will be the fifth meeting between the two programs since the current seniors arrived on campus in 2015. The four previous matches ended in one-goal decisions with Ithaca winning in 2015 (2-1) and 2016 (2-1) and RIT prevailing in 2017 (1-0) and on Oct. 24 of this year (2-1).
