ST. DAVIDS, Pa.- On a day set aside to honor the seniors, Eastern Women's Soccer got a pair of second-half goals from juniors to top Delaware Valley College 2-0. The Eagles (10-5-3, 4-1-1) are scheduled to play at Wilkes University in a Freedom Conference Semifinal this Wednesday. Misericordia University will host FDU-Florham in the other semifinal.

After being introduced as a group, Eastern's eight seniors started the match. Eastern's class of 2013 has won two Freedom Conference Championships and has been very successful off the field as well. All eight members of the class traveled to Zambia in 2011.

The Eagles had more of the play from the start, but the it was not until the 27th minute that the home side really began to put the visiting Aggies under pressure. Amy Thomas cracked a 20 yard shot of the crossbar to start a flurry of activity that saw the Eagles put five shots on goal in a span of eight minutes. Burnell made saves on four of them, and a Del Val defender swept a Kelsey Spoelstra shot from close range off the line. 

Burnell had nine of her 14 saves before the intermission. Alysia Goodman, at the other end, made a trio of first-half saves to keep a clean sheet. Goodman has allowed only one goal in her last 866 minutes played. She has scored twice in that span.

The Eagles had nearly all the play to start the second half. They had four corner kick opportunities in the opening fifteen minutes of the second half. Shortly after the hour mark, Ashley Graybill received a ball facing forward in the midfield and blasted a powerful shot off the crossbar. Spoelstra was on the spot for the rebound and headed the ball into the net for her third goal of the year.

"We were struggling to get a ball played into the small space behind their back line and in front of their keeper," Head Coach Dan Mouw said after the game. "We tried a lot of different ways, and it turns out that we needed a good bounce off the bar to find that space."

Spoelstra's header gave the Eagles a spark of confidence and the offensive surge continued. After several more near misses, Michelle Brown earned the end line with a dribble up the right side. The junior midfielder saw Burnell looking to cut away the cross and pushed a shot in on the near post for the insurance goal.

Eastern had eight second-half corners and fired 17 shots after the intermission.

Eastern finishes in a tie for second in the Freedom Conference regular season standings with Wilkes. The Colonels earned the second seed by virtue of a goal-differential tie-breaker. With many schools cancelling classes in anticipation of the bad weather, there may be changes made to all conference tournament schedules. Check goeasterneagles.com or follow EUEagles on Twitter for up-to-the-minute schedule updates.

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