Women's Soccer
November 9, 2007
NO. 3 FRANKLIN PIERCE DOWNS NO. 6 HOLY FAMILY,
4-0, IN NCAA NEW ENGLAND REGIONAL FIRST ROUND
Ravens to take on No. 2 Bryant in Sunday's second-round play
SMITHFIELD, RI -- The third-seeded Franklin Pierce University women's soccer team shut out sixth-seeded Holy Family University, 4-0, Friday night at Bryant University's Turf Field in the first round of the NCAA New England Regionals. With the win, the Ravens move to 14-1-5 on the season and advance to the region's second-round matchup against the second-seeded host Bulldogs Sunday at 1 p.m.
Franklin Pierce's Rachel Smith got the scoring started in the 13th minute off a Kelly Weygand feed to go up 1-0 early, but it was New England Region and Northeast-10 Conference Player of the Year Gabriela Demoner who caused the most damage Friday night.
The senior All-Region First Teamer scored an unassisted goal 19 seconds later to up the Ravens' lead to 2-0. It was a score the teams would take into halftime, but Demoner wasn't done. In the 52nd minute, the striker scored her second tally of the night and completed her hat trick 14 minutes later with a slotted shot across the goal mouth past Tigers' goalie Kelly McGrogan for a final 4-0 score. The goals were her 24th, 25th and 26th of the year.
The Ravens outshot the Tigers a commanding 25-2 and put 15 of them on net. McGrogan made 11 saves on the night while Franklin Pierce goalkeeper Brittany Ester made two for her eighth blanking of the 2007 campaign.
The Ravens and the Bulldogs have faced off twice already this season, with Bryant winning the regular-season matchup (2-1) and advancing to the NE-10 Championship game on penalty kicks, 7-6.
On the other side of the New England Regional, No.
4 Merrimack College defeated No. 5 UMass Lowell, 1-0, to advance to
Sunday's contest against No. 1 Saint Rose. The matchups on both
sides of the NCAA Region are rather familiar for all four teams
still playing -- Bryant and Franklin Pierce faced off Nov.
1 in the 2007 Northeast-10 Conference Semifinals, as did
Saint Rose and Merrimack.
