TROY, N.Y. – The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) women's soccer team has qualified for the 2016 Liberty League Tournament for the third time in five years and will be the third seed in Tuesday afternoon's semifinal at second seed Vassar College (2:30pm).
Led by first-year head coach BreLynn Nasypany, the Engineers have posted a 13-4-1 overall record, including a 5-3-0 mark in the Liberty League. Two of RPI's four losses have been 1-0 defeats to the No. 1 team in the country (Williams and William Smith).
In their previous meeting this season, which came on October 8 at East Campus Stadium in Troy, the Brewers came away with a 2-1 overtime win. A Vassar own goal opened the scoring in the 31st minute, before Brewers pulled even in the 59th minute on Rebecca Andrews' sixth goal of the year. Amanda McFarland then won the game in the 91st minute.
Offensively, RPI is paced by freshman
Emily Kaplan (Smithtown, NY/Hauppauge), who has six goals and three assists for 15 points. Senior
Cori Winslow (Ballston Spa, NY/Ballston Spa) has four goals and three assists for 11 points, while freshman
Jacqui Richard (Southwick, MA/Westminster School) and junior
Stephanie May (Windham, NH/Central Catholic) each have two goals and two assists for six points.
Between the sticks, freshman
Joey Lyons (Harwood, MD/Southern) has started all 18 games, going 13-4-1 with a 0.44 goals against average and a .904 save percentage. She broke the school's single season shutout record, which was previously held by RPI Athletics Hall of Famer Laura Gregor '00, with her 10th clean sheet at Castleton on Wednesday.
RPI was the first seed in the 2012 tournament, but fell to Union, 1-0, at East Campus Stadium. The Engineers were the second seed in 2014, but were denied of a trip to the title game by St. Lawrence, which advanced on penalty kicks after playing to a 0-0 draw.
The winner of Tuesday's semifinal will advance to the Liberty League Championship Game on Saturday, with location and time TBD.
