No. 22 Rock play to draw with No. 2 ranked Golden Rams

The Slippery Rock women's soccer team played to a 1-1 double overtime tie against fellow PSAC school West Chester University last Saturday.  

The Rock now sits at 2-1-1 overall, and 1-0-1 against PSAC schools.

No. 2 ranked West Chester scored the first goal of the game in the 67th minute, putting them up 1-0 over the Rock.  

With only 36 seconds left in regulation play, sophomore Stephanie Buckenheimer found the left corner of the goal, scoring the lone point for the Green and White and sending the game into overtime.  Junior Shelby Ward was credited with the assist.

The 22nd-ranked Rock hung right with the Golden Rams, finishing the match with a 14-13 advantage in total shots.  

Senior goalie Lisa Rodgers made six saves in goal for the Rock.

Buckenheimer is excited to see where the rest of the season and their successes take the team.

"I can't wait for the rest of our season," Buckenheimer said. "And with some of our biggest games early on, it makes the beginning even more exciting."

Senior Alyssa Barrett thinks last week's game was the motivation the team needs for the rest of the season.    

"Last week, we tied the No. 2 team in the country, which definitely boosted our confidence so much," Barrett said. "We had confidence in ourselves before the match that we were one of the top teams, but the tie shows that we can compete with the best.

"After a week off to rest and prepare, the Rock will be on the road today, traveling to take on No. 10 California University and tomorrow when they take on Shippensburg University.

Barrett expects the team to do well in the games this upcoming weekend.

"This weekend is huge for us once again to show we are among the top teams," Barrett said. "To prepare for our game today and our game tomorrow, we've been doing a lot of tactical training and working on how we can expose the weaknesses of both teams. We feel like we can win both games this weekend if we apply what we've been doing in practice all week. Every girl on the team has trained hard all week, and we've been pushing to remain at peak performance. Our game plan is the same as every other game- focus on the game at hand, win our personal and team battles, play with heart and character, and expect nothing less than a win because we know that's what we're capable of."