Fredericksburg, Va. – The Penn State Harrisburg women's soccer team took a short lived, early second half lead over the Mary Washington Eagles Saturday October 25^th.  The early lead came thanks to a quality strike from freshman Kylie Courtney (Honey Brook, Pa. / Twin Valley) in the 46^th minute. 

From the first whistle the Lions found themselves in the defensive stance making sure they would not give up any easy or early goals; which has been the team's Achilles heel for much of the season.  Today was different thanks to the back line's effort led by central defender Morgan Gates (Harrisburg, Pa. / Central Dauphin)  and her twin sister Mackenzie (Harrisburg, Pa. / Central Dauphin) who kept anything dangerous out of her net for the entire first half.

The Lions started the second half with a different mindset as they pushed forward from the start.  It only took two minutes for the Blue and White to take an early second half lead thanks to Hannah Jorich's (Middletown, Pa / Middletown) great pass wide to Courtney who buried her shot into the bottom right corner from outside the eighteen yard box. 

Unfortunately, the Lions offensive effort was short lived as they dropped back into a defensive mindset following the goal.  They were able to hold on for just under ten minutes before the Eagle's finally broke through to tie the game 1-1 in the 55^th minute. 

It was anyone's game to win at that point, but Harrisburg just did not push forward hard enough and allowed Mary Washington to keep the ball in their defensive end for too long. The Eagle's eventually scored the winner in the 82^nd minute and found the net once more in the 84^th after Penn State Harrisburg pushed numbers up in hopes of tying the game.  

Assistant coach Kate Murphy had this to say following the match. "We didn't get the result we wanted, but the girls fought through injuries and pushed to the final whistle.  I am proud to be a part of a team with such a great group of young women."

The Lions will hope to end another teams playoff hopes Wednesday when they travel to face off against York College who may still need a point to get into the CAC playoffs.