Bulls Historic Season Comes To An End With a 4-1 Loss At Penn State In The NCAA First Round

Friday, November 14

7:30 pm

16-3-3

Penn State

18-3-0

Buffalo

Penn State

Bulls Historic Season Comes To An End With a 4-1 Loss At Penn State In The NCAA First Round

11/14/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA – The State University of New York, Buffalo women's soccer teams' historic season came to an end on Friday night as the Bulls were defeated by Penn State, 4-1, in the NCAA Tournament First Round. The loss for UB snapped their program record 14 match unbeaten streak that earned them the Mid-American Conference regular season and Tournament Championships.

Buffalo finishes off their best season in program history with an overall record of 16-3-3, setting a new program record for wins in a season. Of UB's three losses on the season, two came to top-10 nationally ranked programs, Virginia Tech and Penn State. After earning their first MAC regular season and Tournament Championship, the Bulls couldn't add another first, NCAA Tournament win, to their impressive 2014 resume.

The lone UB goal came in the 81^st minute as Kassidy Kidd drew a foul in the box to earn the Bulls a penalty kick. On the ensuing penalty kick, MAC Offensive Player of the Year, Katie Roberts buried her MAC-leading 12^th goal of the year as she froze the Penn State keeper, scoring in the low right corner of the net.

The Nittany Lions got on the scoreboard first in the 15^th minute as Raquel Rodriguez dribbled into the 18-yard box past a pair of UB defenders and crossed a pass to Mallory Weber who beat Laura Dougall to the lower left corner.

Just after the Penn State goal, UB tried to answer with a goal of their own but Roberts was stopped on a blast from the top of the 18-yard box. Five minutes later, Kidd made a great run down the right side but her hard low shot was saved by Britt Eckerstrom.

Penn State held the 9-2 advantage in shots through the opening 45 minutes of action. The turning point of the game came at the end of the opening half as Jackie Hall, MAC Defensive Player of the Year, was injured and was not able to return to the contest. Buffalo captain Courtney Mann was forced to move back to the center back position while Andrea Niper took over Mann's normal position.

After a pair of big saves by Dougall, the Nittany Lions tacked on two more goals to put the game out of reach for the Bulls in the 53^rd minute. Penn State scored off of a corner kick in the 51^st minute as Rodriguez blasted one into the left corner and just over a minute later, Megan Schafer snuck one past Dougall on the breakaway.

UB showed some resiliency down the stretch of the second half as they got on the board late and had multiple other chances to draw within one, but the Nittany Lions were too much as they buried their fourth goal of the match in the 86^th minute to push past the Bulls.

For the match, Penn State held the 23-5 advantage in shots and the 11-1 edge in corner kicks. Kidd led the Bulls with three shots including two on goal while Roberts closed out her career with two shots, both on goal, and the lone Buffalo goal.

Dougall closed out her record breaking freshman campaign with five saves in just her second loss of the season (16-2-3). Dougall's program record 13 clean sheets ranked her first in the Mid-American Conference.

Playing in their last match as members of UB were Megan Giesen, Megan Abman, Mann, Therien and Roberts. Those five players helped the 2014 team etch their name in the record books at UB and the class will always be remembered as the class that helped build the Buffalo program.