Corie Brant's unassisted goal in the 65th minute stood as the defining margin as Eastern University Women's Soccer held on for a 3-2 win on a windy and wintry day at DeSales. The Eagles (11-5, 7-0 Freedom) clinched the top seed in the Freedom Conference playoffs with the win.
Eastern got off to a fast start into a stiff wind in the opening half. Jill DiRenzo touched home an Ashley Hackman cross in the ninth minute to give the visiting Eagles an early 1-0 edge. Hackman set up the goal with a strong run on the left side. DiRenzo has scored in sixteen of her last seventeen conference contests.
Hackman doubled the Eastern advantage six minutes later when the senior All-America took a pass from Allison Inch and tucked away her 11th goal of the year. Inch picked up her sixth assist of the season with the well-weighted through ball. Despite the stiff wind, the Eagles continued to press into the Bulldog zone.
DeSales waited for opportunities in the counter-attack, and Dana Eustace appeared to be ready to break through several times. The Eastern back line worked to keep the Bulldog standout out of the box. In the 32nd minute, DeSales cut the lead in half on a 20 yard shot from the right side by Amanda Fink. Fink's goal was the first goal scored against the Eagles by a Conference opponent this year. The goal ended a stretch of over 500 shutout minutes for the Eastern defense.
Amanda Daveler made four of her six saves in the first half. Eastern held a 10-7 edge in shots at the break. Katie Halpin made five first-half saves for DeSales.
Brant picked up her first of the year in the middle of a hail storm. The senior left back stepped onto a ball in the midfield, and after quickly surveying the field for a potential pass, made the decision to attack the goal. Brant fired a low skipping shot from 20 yards out to give Eastern what seemed to be a safe 3-1 lead.
DeSales was not finished as Katie Dishman finished a free kick from just outside the box to make it 3-2 with 22 minutes to play. The Eagles fired 17 second half shots, but Melissa Millili made five saves in goal to keep the game within striking distance.
Eastern Head Coach Dan Mouw said of the game, "We had to work very hard to earn the win today. DeSales really competed for every ball, and they have some outstanding players. Corie made a big play for the third goal, and Amanda played well in goal. We are very happy that we will be able to play our playoff games on our home surface."
Eastern, ranked eighth in the most recent NSCAA Mid-Atlantic Region poll, will wrap up the regular season at Misericordia University on Saturday at 1:00 pm.