Bloomsburg Women's Soccer Gears Up For PSAC Championships

BLOOMSBURG--The Bloomsburg University women's soccer team will be making its first appearance in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Women's Soccer playoffs in three seasons on Tuesday, when they visit East Stroudsburg beginning at 4:00 p.m. It also marks the 10th time in school history that the Huskies will be appearing in the PSAC championships.

Bloomsburg comes into the game as the third seed in the Eastern Division after finishing the regular season with a 7-6-4 overall record (5-4-3 PSAC) and is looking to win their first conference championship since 2002 and fourth all-time.

The Huskies are led on offense by freshman forward Meg Donlon (Randolph, NJ/Randolph), who scored five goals on the year to lead the team. Junior's Ashley Brucker (Blairstown, NJ/North Warren) and Lauren Hess (East Greenville/Upper Perkiomen) have each scored three goals and recorded an assist on the year, while freshman Kelsey Stoka (Langhorne/Neshaminy) has also scored three goals. In goal, senior Brittany Moses (East Greenville/Upper Perkiomen) has been the team's primary goal keeper. In 10 starts, she has made 57 saves and has a goals against average of 1.09.

East Stroudsburg comes into the PSAC tournament as the second seed after going 11-6-1 overall in the regular season (8-3-1 PSAC). The Warriors are making their sixth appearance the PSAC tournament in the last 14 years and their first since 2005.

East Stroudsburg is led by junior Lynda Hicks, who paced an East Stroudsburg offense that ended the regular season third in the conference in goals per game averaging 2.28 goals a contest. Her 24 points scored (11 goals, two assists) on the year is tied for fourth best in the conference on the year. Junior's Janel Cleffi and Dena Schleifer each tallied 10 points (seven goals, three assists), while fellow junior Tara Takac has scored seven. Junior goalie Janine Turico has accumulated a goals against average of 0.90 (second best in the PSAC) and has saved 79 shots on the year. She also leads the PSAC in save percentage with a .859 mark.

In the regular season, East Stroudsburg won the first contest 2-1 on August 29th at East Stroudsburg. Hicks and Ashley Becker scored goals for East Stroudsburg, while Hess scored Bloomsburg's lone goal in the contest. In the second meeting between the squads on September 26th at Bloomsburg, the two teams played to a 1-1 tie in double overtime. Donlon gave Bloomsburg a 1-0 lead at the half, but Becker scored the lone goal of the second half to knot the game up at one going into overtime. After both teams failed on scoring opportunities in both overtime periods, the game ended in a tie.

Bloomsburg leads the all-time series over East Stroudsburg 17-4-2. The winner of the matchup will go on to face number one seed West Chester on Friday at 1:00 p.m. at West Chester.