SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – The Shippensburg University women's soccer team battled to a 1-1 tie in its season finale against Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) opponent Bloomsburg in an Eastern Division matchup Saturday afternoon at David See Field.
The Huskies (9-4-5, 7-4-5 PSAC East), needing a tie or a win against SU to reach the PSAC playoffs, found the back of the net early in the game to open scoring. In the 13th minute, Bloomsburg keeper Samantha Merklin sent a free kick towards teammate Brooke Foster, who headed the ball further into their offensive side of the field. The ball found its way to Aubrey Hondros, who with enough precision, got the ball past redshirt-freshman
Kirstin Brown and into the bottom left corner of the net for the 1-0 lead.
The Raiders (5-8-5, 5-6-5 PSAC East) found their answer in the second half, capitalizing on a corner kick in the 57th minute. Junior
Kaitlyn DiCandilo took the corner, sending it towards the goal with a high arcing kick. Merklin was able to contact the ball, deflecting it partially, but wasn't able to retain possession, falling right at sophomore
Mia Kemp's foot, and with Merklin out of position, made for the easy tap in to even the game.
Shippensburg had an opportunity to score the winning goal with a free kick from just outside the box with less than 10 seconds remaining, but freshman
Hannah Menicheschi's shot was foiled by Merklin, in what was the last kick of the game.
Kemp's goal marked her second goal of the season and her career, and DiCandilo's assist was her first of the season, and second of her career. Brown recorded seven saves in the match, bringing her season total to 110, the highest by an individual Raider since 2018, when Delaney Shifflett had 126 total saves.
Shippensburg finished the 2024 season with a 5-6-5 record in conference, its second most points (20) in PSAC play since the 2016 season.
