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Abbot named PSAC Champion Scholar

PSAC Championship Game - Saturday, 1 p.m.
ESU at West Chester  l  Live Video  l  Live Stats

WEST CHESTER - Sophomore forward Jules Sicker scored the game's only goal with 9:31 remaining, sending three-time defending PSAC women's soccer champion East Stroudsburg University to the championship game for the fourth straight year with a 1-0 win over Kutztown in the semifinals on Thursday afternoon at West Chester's Rockwell Field.

Sicker knocked in a long throw-in by freshman midfielder Haley Skove and senior goalkeeper Jules Harris made eight saves for the Warriors (14-3-3), who will play host and top-seeded West Chester (16-2-1) in the final on Saturday at 1 p.m.

ESU can become the first school to win four straight PSAC women's soccer championships, joining Lock Haven (1999-01) as the only programs to win three straight.

The Warriors are the second team to make four straight PSAC championship games, joining California (2010-13), which went 2-2 in its four trips.

ESU, the No. 3 seed, advanced past Slippery Rock, 2-1, in the quarterfinals on a goal by sophomore forward Monica Wood in the 77th minute on Tuesday night.

West Chester has had a pair of late winners in a 1-0 win vs. Bloomsburg in the quarterfinals, and scored with 3:23 remaining in its 2-1 win vs. Gannon in the semifinals.

Kutztown (16-3-1), ranked No. 4 in this week's United Soccer Coaches Division II national poll, is knocked out of the PSAC Tournament by ESU for the third time in the last four years. The Warriors won 1-0 in the 2014 championship game, and 2-1 in the 2016 championship game after rallying from a goal down.

Sicker's goal, her seventh of the season, is her first since scoring in a 4-0 win at Shippensburg on September 27. She scored six goals in ESU's first nine games and appeared in the first 11 before suffering an injury that held her out until last Saturday's regular season finale at Clarion.

Skove notched her third assist of the season to go with five goals while starting all 20 games in the ESU midfield as a freshman.

Harris made seven of her eight saves in the first half, recording her 11th shutout and ninth solo shutout of the year to tie her school records which she set last season.

The shutout is the 39th of her career (33rd solo), extending both school records, and improves to 59-15-7 in 81 starts. The 2016 PSAC Defensive Athlete of the Year, Harris can earn her third career all-conference honor when the teams are announced on Friday morning.

ESU had advantages of 11-10 in shots and 8-2 in corner kicks and scored off Skove's long throw, which bounced once, wasn't cleared and found Sicker inside the six-yard box near the back post where Sicker knocked it home.

The Warriors improve to 5-2 vs. Kutztown since the start of the 2014 season. The Golden Bears are 60-14-3 against all other competition in that span.

Saturday's PSAC championship game vs. West Chester will be the first meeting for the title between the two schools which have combined for nine (ESU 5, WCU 4) of the 23 PSAC championships in conference history.

ESU has eliminated WCU in each of the last two years, both on penalty kicks - the 2015 quarterfinals and 2016 semifinals. Despite those results, WCU has had the better of the recent series with a 4-1-2 record since 2015. The Golden Rams won, 1-0, in the season opener for both schools on August 31.


GAME NOTES
* ESU improves to 16-6-5 in postseason games under head coach Rob Berkowitz (11-3-4 in PSAC Tournament)
* ESU improves to 12-2-3 in postseason games since 2014 (9-0-2 in PSAC Tournament) (4-0-2 as lower seed)

* ESU teams to make 4+ straight PSAC championship games:
WSOC - 2014-17 (won first 3)
MSOC - 1997-2003 (won all 7)
MSOC - 1991-95 (won last 4)

* ESU head coach Rob Berkowitz has guided both Warriors soccer teams to the PSAC championship game. The men play Gannon (at West Chester) on Sunday.
* Berkowitz (2017) and ESU's Jerry Sheska (1994) are the only PSAC coaches to take both of their schools' teams to the title game in the same year.
* ESU won the 3rd of 4 straight men's titles, and the first PSAC women's soccer title awarded, in 1994.

* ESU is looking to join Warriors teams in 1994 and 1997, and Slippery Rock in 2005, as the only schools to sweep PSAC soccer titles in the same year.

* ESU is the first school to advance to PSAC championship games in men's soccer, women's soccer and field hockey in the same year since 1999 (Lock Haven).