Soccer Clinches Home Playoff Match With Win

The Alfred State Women's Soccer team won tonight's match 2-1 against the Hilbert Hawks. Before the match, Alfred State was fourth place in the AMCC standings, looking up at the third place Hawks. The winner of the match was guaranteed a home playoff game this Saturday, and the Pioneers secured that for the first time in the NCAA era. 

The scoring began with a Megan Fischer (Bemus Point) goal in the 19 minute. Jena Schelble (Boston, NY) assisted on the goal, the two forwards continue to gain steam as they head towards conference playoffs. The back line of the Pioneers stayed in control of the ball throughout the match, coming up with important wins and clears to keep the ball out of their net. Going into halftime, the Pioneers were up a goal. 

Hilbert attacked early out of the half, earning a corner kick less than a minute into the half. Gabrielle Avallone connected with Grace Zabawa to knot the game for Hilbert in the 46 minute. 58 seconds later, Falyn Lewis-Ellison (Rexville, NY) scored her first goal of the season. Proving to be the game-winner, the Pioneers senior captain scored the goal that guaranteed one more match at Pioneer Stadium. 

Alfred State was supposed to honor their five senior student-athletes during halftime of the match. Those plans were quickly changed when the entirety of Alfred State's campus lost power minutes before the match started. The NYSEG power outage caused the game to be cut short by twenty minutes, ending the match at the 71 minute mark. The senior student-athletes were honored post-game.

The athletes honored were: 

Madison Harrington

Jena Schelble

Falyn Lewis- Ellison

Isabelle Popoff

Lauryn Washington

The Pioneers play the AMCC tournament's opening round on Saturday, October 29 at 3 p.m. at Pioneer Stadium. They are set to play Mt. Aloysius, the Pioneers won the previous match 1-0.