Women's Soccer | 11/4/2019 1:43:00 PM
TROY, N.Y. – The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) women's soccer team has qualified for the 2019 Liberty League Tournament for the third time in the last four years and will be the fifth seed in Tuesday afternoon's Quartefinal match at fourth seed St. Lawrence University (2pm).
Led by fourth-year head coach BreLynn Nasypany, the Engineers enter the postseason with a 8-6-2 overall record, going 5-4-0 in the Liberty League. RPI closed out the regular season on a three-game winning streak, including a 1-0 playoff-clinching victory over Ithaca on Saturday at East Campus Stadium.
In their previous meeting with St. Lawrence this season, which came on September 28 at East Campus Stadium in Troy, the Saints came away with a 2-1 win, scoring the tying goal in the 86th minute, before Tyler Potts scored the winner in 91st minute. RPI sophomore
Fiona Murphy netted the opening tally in the 69th minute, with an assist to senior
Jacqui Richard.
Offensively, RPI is led by sophomore
Whitney Wisnom, who has a team-high six goals and one assist for 13 points in 16 games (all starts). Senior
Emily Kaplan, who netted the winner on Saturday against the Bombers, is second with 11 points on four goals and three assists. Classmate
Meagan Lettko (3 goals) rounds out the top three scorers with six points, while starting all 16 games at center back and averaging 91.7 minute per match. She has anchored a back line that has posted eight clean sheets and allows just 0.81 goals per game on an average of 10.4 shots.
Between the sticks, senior
Joey Lyons has gone 6-6-2 with a 0.89 goals against average and an .822 save percentage in 14 games (all starts), collecting six shutouts. Junior
Kate Nadeau (2-0-0) has a 0.00 goals against average and a 1.000 save percentage in three games (2 starts).
RPI last played in the postseason in 2017, when it fell at St. Lawrence, 6-0, in the quartefinals. In 2016, the Engineers defeated Vassar, 1-0, in the conference semifinals, before falling to eventual champions William Smith, 4-0. The winner of Tuesday's contest will advance to the Liberty League Semifinal on Friday at top-seed and nationally second-ranked William Smith (11am).
